Aug. 04–Financing is now in place that paves the way for a 33-story hotel and condominium project to break ground in downtown Austin, its developers say.
The Kor Group said it has brought on the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman, Sachs & Co. as a capital partner for Austin Proper Hotel & Residences, which will be part of the transformation taking shape on land that formerly housed the Thomas C. Green Water Treatment Plant.
Austin Proper is expected to break ground in the next few weeks, said Matt Green, Austin managing partner for The Kor Group. Located at West Second and Nueces streets, the 500,000-square-foot Austin Proper development will have 99 luxury condominiums atop a 244-room hotel. The hotel is expected to open in 2018 and will be managed and branded by Proper Hospitality.
The Kor Group is not disclosing the cost of the project.
Brian De Lowe, president and co-founder of Proper Hospitality and a partner at The Kor Group, said Goldman Sachs is the "ideal capital partner to help us realize our vision of positioning this project as the ultimate luxury lifestyle hotel and residential offering in the Austin market."
Green said buyers have signed contracts for 40 percent of the condo units. The condos currently are priced from $600,000 to $3 million, and the penthouses start at $3.4 million. Austin-based DEN Property Group is marketing the residences.
Austin Proper will include multiple dining concepts by McGuire Moorman Hospitality, which holds claim to some of Austin's most popular restaurants — including Lamberts Downtown Barbecue, Perla's Seafood & Oyster Bar and Jeffrey's — and which just opened June's on South Congress Avenue.
Austin Proper is part of the ongoing transformation of the former Green Water site into 1.7 million square feet of new development. The city chose Trammell Crow to redevelop the site, which is part of a larger swath of former city-owned industrial land that is being added to the tax base and helping to reinvigorate that area of downtown with new housing, offices, shops and restaurants.
Other components of Trammell Crow's project are Northshore, a 38-story apartment tower Crow is developing with The Hanover Co. and Pacific Life Insurance Company, and an office tower under construction where Google Inc. will be the lead tenant.
In January 2015, The Kor Group purchased the half-acre site where it will build Austin Proper from Trammell Crow Company, which had paid the city $4.3 million for the land.The Kor Group did not disclose what it paid for the land.
So far, Trammell Crow has bought three of the 4.5 acres on the Green Water site from the city in phases, paying $32.1 million of the $42.4 million total cost for all four blocks.
City officials have estimated that over the next three decades Green's redevelopment will generate $112 million in property taxes and $9.6 million in sales taxes for the city.
