Another high-rise in search of a sweet density bonus is in the works for Downtown's Rainey Street District.
Developer Pearlstone Partners is looking to build a residential tower on two adjacent lots at 62 East Avenue and 64 East Avenue, according to plans recently filed with the city.
Early plans indicate the condo tower could rise 48 stories on the 0.3-acre site and have 254 units, according to reports from the Towers blog and the Austin American-Statesman. Renderings of the proposed project haven't been released, and plans can and often do change significantly as they move through the city's development review process.
A tower with that height and proposed square footage ratio will also need to be approved through the city's downtown density bonus program. The program allows increases in the allowed floor area ratio of buildings in the neighborhood in exchange for community benefits such as residences that meet affordability standards onsite or a fee-in-lieu to the city’s affordable housing trust fund.
If the building plans are approved with approximately the proposed height and square footage, it would join a number of new buildings that will make the Rainey Street District one of the densest residential neighborhoods downtown. Nearby projects that are planned or already under construction include LV Collective's 80 Rainey, River Street Residences, and a Cambria Hotel. Density bonuses have become such a popular development tool in the district that their deployment prompted the city to revisit its downtown density program more generally.
Austin-based Pearlstone certainly hasn’t slept on the Rainey density craze. Its Natiivo short-term-rental/condo tower hybrid at 48 East Avenue has already sold out of residences, and its Vesper building at 84 East Avenue is underway.
Early filings for the proposed building indicate the involvement of local firms STG as architects with well as Kim Lewis Designs on interiors, civil engineers Wuest Group and landscape architects DWG.
