Estimates from city officials indicate that more than $10 billion in construction projects are currently underway in downtown Austin—many of the them aiming to revitalize and expand different areas of the city's heart.
“We are a very successful city, and as a result of that, you have a lot of demand for improvements,” Mayor Kirk Watson said. “...There are going to be some eggs broken to create the omelette—but we’re doing it in a methodical way.”
According to property advocacy group Downtown Austin Alliance, 7.2 million square feet of development is actively under construction in the downtown district, including redevelopment projects along Sixth Street and proposed changes to Congress Avenue near the Capitol, as well as:
- 16+ projects actively under construction
- 25 planned projects
- 1.1 million recently completed square feet
- 10.6 million proposed square feet
Old 6th
What has colloquially been dubbed Dirty Sixth is undergoing changes as Stream Realty Partners, the owner of 31 properties along the bar-heavy block, seeks to revitalize the area.
That project, called Old 6th, includes both cosmetic and business changes with the goal of creating a “true downtown neighborhood,” said Paul Bodenman, Stream’s senior vice president
of investments.
“We want really high-quality restaurants,” Bodenman said. “That doesn’t mean it has to be expensive, but it does mean that we want really great chefs that bring really great concepts to spread a really wide array of aordability and experience.”
Building rehabilitation work is underway. By April, restoration efforts on seven properties are expected to be complete, with the first restaurants opening by summer 2026, Bodenman said.
Tenant demand will play a large role in the remaining redevelopment timeline. City officials recently reopened several blocks of the street to vehicle traffic on the weekends.
City officials proposed plans to reconstruct Seventh to 11th streets into four blocks of public plaza space. Vehicle traffic on Congress Avenue would end at Seventh Street, while cross traffic will still flow east and west on Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, 10th and 11th streets.
The first phase of construction was originally projected to begin as early as mid-2025.
However, as a result of community feedback, the city is currently developing alternate design concepts to the blocks north of Seventh Street as a result of community feedback, that provide for the opportunity to program the space for specific, special events but otherwise maintain motor vehicle access to 11th Street, according to Brad Cesak, a spokesperson for the city's Transportation and Public Works department.
Efforts to extend the skyline south of Lady Bird Lake continue, as plans for a new 480-foot mixed-use tower received approval in November and another two 500-foot towers close to securing final city approval.
The 19-acre former Austin American-Statesman campus received approval in late 2022 for the redevelopment intended to bring up to six high-rises. with millions of square feet of residential, hotel and commercial space paired with green spaces and trail connections.
The development is led by Endeavor Real Estate Group, the firm behind local projects like The Domain in North Austin. At present, the 305 South Congress project is in the design and planning phase.
The Sixth & Blanco venture by MML Hospitality and Riverside includes a vertical mixed-use makeover of a stretch of properties along West Sixth Street. Developers broke ground in October, with several buildings already demolished, while others are being gutted and refurbished in order to preserve the street’s historic character.
Scheduled to debut in 2027, the 2.5-acre project will combine refurbished bungalows and commercial buildings dating to the 1920s with a new five-story building which will include retail space, art galleries, restaurants, a hotel, a spa, public gardens and 10 homes.
Longtime South Central Austin resident Bryce Hendrix said he welcomes the influx of high-density and mixed-use projects.
Having commuted into downtown for years, he said he’d like to see more walkable, mixed-use developments. With massive interstate reconstruction and traffic worsening, he’d rather be able to just walk to grab a cup of coffee.
“You only get that with density,” he said.
On the other hand, Andrew Tippen, another longtime resident, said he worries that having large scale developers working on blocks worth of projects might undermine some of Austin’s historically unique qualities in the downtown area.
“It’s entire blocks and it’s the same developer—the same installation going in there,” Tippen said. “That’s a scale thing. It’s not because that developer just wants to completely erase old Austin; it’s because that’s what it took for it to be viable.”
Bodenman, in reference to the Old 6th project, explained the real estate group was able to seize an opportunity for redevelopment after the COVID-19 pandemic saw the closure of many bars and restaurants on the street, in turn driving many legacy landowners’ departure from the entertainment district.
In response to the wave of major projects, city officials called for a new Downtown Strategic Office expected to open this year. The program will be formed to oversee downtown initiatives and infrastructure updates, and to coordinate with several organizations working around the city center.
