Towering Over Austin

New luxury high-rise breaks ground in trendy Austin neighborhood

70 Rainey condo high rise development residential tower rendering downtown Austin Rainey Street

Construction is expected to complete in early 2018.

Rendering courtesy of Sackman Austin

Austin's bustling skyline is getting a new addition. On Tuesday, developers break ground on a new Rainey Street high-rise.

70 Rainey is a 34-story condominium tower promising luxury living and uninterrupted views of downtown Austin. Construction, which is expected to complete in early 2018, is helmed by Sackman Austin.

"Today is the culmination of a tremendous amount of hard work and positive collaboration," said C.J. Sackman, director of development for 70 Rainey, in a statement. "We are excited and proud to see our shared vision for the future of this treasured downtown cultural district beginning to take shape."

The tower features 164 residences and is already taking reservations. Each of the one-, two-, and three-bedroom units — as well as two varieties of penthouses — features elevated ceilings and an outdoor terrace. Other notable amenities include a therapeutic plunge pool, sauna, steam showers, fitness facilities, dog park, pet-grooming station, and 24/7 concierge services.

The residences are situated on top of an above-ground parking garage. Connecting the two sections is a 20,665-square-foot outdoor patio and green space complete with a community garden, yoga deck, fire pit, outdoor kitchen, and several lounge areas, as well as a vanishing-edge pool facing Lady Bird Lake.

Prices range from $500,000 to upwards of $4,000,000. But you don't have to be a resident to enjoy some aspects of the development, like the ground-floor restaurant on Rainey Street and second-floor patio. Additionally, Sackman Austin is giving $400,000 to the City of Austin to help with construction of a new pocket park in the lot just south of 70 Rainey.

The ground-breaking ceremony for 70 Rainey takes place Tuesday, August 2, at 6 pm, with a celebration to follow at Half Step. Look for the tower going up in the old Rainey Street Food Court space in front of the Mexican American Cultural Center.

high-rises downtown condos

Rental Rumblings

Cramped? Austin renters feel the squeeze in more ways than one.

Algarita Apartments/Facebook

Austin renters have less space than they did in 2009.

Feeling cramped? There's a reason. In a recent study, real estate website Trulia found that renters — especially those with children — have less space than they did several years ago.

Trulia looked at U.S. Census Bureau's 2014 American Community Survey data to determine the number of needed bedrooms based on children and married couples in the family. Married couples together only need one bedroom, while non-married adults as well as children were assumed to each need one bedroom. Households with fewer bedrooms than non-married adults or children are considered to suffer the “space crunch.”

In the nation’s biggest metro areas, 14.7 percent of households had fewer bedrooms than family members, an increase of half-a-percentage point since 2009. The study showed that renters with kids are especially cramped, and the larger and pricier the metro, the more likely renters are tight on space. Trulia found that just 8.1 percent of nationwide homeowners are tight on space, versus 26.4 percent of households who rent.

Contrary to the national trend, a few major Texas metros, including Houston and Dallas, posted a bigger drop among space-crunched renters compared to homeowners. Austin, Fort Worth, and San Antonio, on the other hand, are consistent with the national trend, where more renting households are sharing bedrooms than they did in 2009.

In the Austin-Round Rock metro area, 13.2 percent of residents face the space crunch. The bunk-bed wave hit just 7.3 percent of Austin homeowners in 2014, down .6 percentage points over a five-year period. In comparison, 22.8 percent of renting households have fewer bedrooms than they need, up 2.4 percentage points since 2009 — the highest increase in Texas by far.

While space is seemingly getting worse for renters in Austin, as well as Fort Worth and San Antonio, the share of cramped renters in Houston and Dallas has dropped more significantly between 2009 and 2014 than the share of cramped homeowners. Still, 28.8 percent of Houston-area renters are bunking up. In Dallas, the figure is over 27 percent.

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