"We have a clear mandate from Envision Central Texas to pursue vertical mixed-use and infill developments. The city is expected to codify and enact the new rules by the end of August. Guadalupe 31's brand of redevelopment is consistent with the City Council's proposed commercial design standards, which are intent on promoting a more pedestrian-friendly, aesthetically pleasurable Austin. He called neighbors' interactions with the father and son Lamy duo a "success story." The only unresolved concern at this point, says Grimes, is how to handle additional cut-through traffic on the neighborhood streets. Heritage neighbors recommended bringing the building directly up to the sidewalk to create a pedestrian-oriented "streetscape environment," and moving parking and car activity to the back of the building, according to Grimes. Mikal Grimes, past president of the surrounding Heritage Neighborhood Association from Lamar to Guadalupe and from 29th to 38th streets said neighbors gave developers Joe and Peter Lamy of Capital City Partners zoning concessions in exchange for the developers' willingness to conform to a new neighborhood zoning plan intended to concentrate mixed-use density along major corridors. The three-story development, which will fill the space left by recently demolished structures just south of the old Half Price buildings, will feature two residential stories (38 condos priced from $185,000-$190,000 for one bedroom, one bath, to $220,000-$300,000 for two bedrooms, two baths) on top of 18,000 square feet of ground floor mixed retail with separated business and residential parking located within the 40-foot-tall structure. The star of the show, however, will be Guadalupe 31, a "vertical mixed-use" development designed by Austin's Dick Clark Architects. The makeovers of both former Half Price Books buildings are basically gussied up versions of the traditional architecture and development that defines the north-central corridors of Guadalupe, Lamar, and Burnet. Half Price's old rare books building (a former used car office), on the south side of 31st, is being replaced with another building of a similar scale in the same location. The abandoned run-down building will get a face-lift. Earlier this year, neighborhood fixture Half Price Books vacated its longtime location at 3110 Guadalupe, on the corner of West 31st Street, for a much larger former Randalls on North Lamar. That's not the only change afoot on Guadalupe. The Guadalupe 31 project will go up on the former site of Expresso Lube, Ray's Steakhouse, and the adjacent strip mall.ĭemolition crews have been busy all summer in the 30 blocks of Guadalupe Street, making rubble and dust out of the former Ray's Steakhouse, Expresso Lube, and an old strip mall, and clearing the way for a new mixed-use condo/retail development that planners say will embody the pedestrian-oriented values of the city's proposed commercial design standards.
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