As you can read from the past several months of posts, the City of Austin is really making a move to transition downtown to a more residential area.
According to the Austin Statesman, "Royal Blue Grocery, downtown's first neighborhood grocery story, opened Tuesday at 247 W. Third St., near the Second Street retail and entertainment district. The 1,000-square-foot store will cater to downtown's growing resident population, stocking staples such as milk and eggs, fresh produce and prepared foods, wine and beer...The store will be open daily from 7:30 a.m. to midnight."
Whole Foods has been a popular attraction to Central Austin. Iti's located near the intersection of Lamar and 6th Street, which is west of Downtown. Since most upcoming mixed-use residences are being built near 2nd Street, it only makes sense to have more retail operations in that area.
Also in the works is the Spring Condos, which will be in this area as well."The International Bank of Commerce is providing a $70 million
construction loan for the Spring condominiums, to be built at Third and
Bowie streets downtown. Developers said they plan to start work on the 41-story, 260-unit
tower in early 2007, with completion expected in the fourth quarter of
2008".
Now is definitely the time to buy central. Some locals think $250-400k for a small condo is expensive, but they need to check with other residents of large cities. Downtown living is often convenient, shiek, and profitable in the longrun. There's only so much Central Austin living to go around and these new condos will present good opportunities for investors.
Link: Spring condo project gets $70 million construction loan; Downtown Austin gets mini-grocery store..
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