Kevin Burns of Urbanspace Realtors has adopted the “housing concierge” philosophy, and it’s spawned many side businesses.
“Whatever it takes to give someone a smooth transition to taking care of even the smallest details of the transaction,” he said. “Over time, I have added a furniture store, interior design firm and moving company to better serve our clients.”
The project is part of a wave of growth in the Rainey Street District, an area just off East Cesar Chavez Street and Interstate 35 that is known for its bars and restaurants. The former working-class district has seen successive surges of high-rise residential, hotel and other commercial development since the city rezoned it for high-density uses in the mid-2000s.
Two other mega high-rises are under construction on Rainey Street:
Although downtown’s office market has languished as remote work has taken hold since the coronavirus pandemic, people still want to live in the center of the action, and that’s keeping downtown’s housing, retail and restaurant sectors bustling, Burns said.
“With interest rates expected to fall and strong population/job growth, I am quite optimistic that the downtown Austin condo market will see a solid year of sales and appreciation in 2024,” Burns said. “This is following a subpar year of sales in 2023 due to global market issues and high interest rates.”
A developer says it plans to build a 35-story tower with nearly 300 luxury condominiums on downtown Austin’s northwest side — a project that would be one of the tallest buildings to date in that area.
Called Luminary, the building will have 286 one- to three-bedroom residences in a tower slated to rise 400 feet. Luminary’s condos are expected to range in price from about $600,000 to more than $3 million, with a number of units below the $1 million mark.
The 0.81-acre site is located at the northwest corner of 14th and Guadalupe Streets, west of the Texas State Capitol and SXSW Center, home of South by Southwest’s headquarters.
For Luminary, Austin-based Urbanspace LLP has been tapped to handle the marketing and sales of the units.
“What makes Luminary particularly special is that it offers attainable home ownership for urban dwellers seeking the city energy and conveniences combined with the serenity of a residential neighborhood,” said Kevin Burns, founder and CEO of Urbanspace. “Additionally, new homes for less than $1 million in downtown Austin fill a much-needed void, and are particularly attractive to young professionals, empty nesters and people wanting a lock-and-leave lifestyle or second residence.”
Burns’ Urbanspace real estate brokerage team has downtown Austin’s most prolific new condo sales representatives. Burns and his agents previously have sold out towers such as Seaholm and The Independent (also known as the Jenga tower), which set a record-breaking pace for sales. Burns also is developing his own high-rise project, The Modern Austin Residences in the Rainey Street District on downtown’s southeastern edge.
Burns and Kaleel previously joined forces when Kaleel was with Intracorp Homes and spearheaded the development of the 44 East Ave condo high-rise on Rainey Street, which Urbanspace also represented.
The new year will bring new skyscrapers to downtown Austin.
In the past two decades, downtown has seen an unprecedented high-rise building boom that has transformed the city’s central business district with towering condominium, apartment and office buildings along with hotels and scores of new shopping, dining and entertainment options.
Even as downtown’s office market has languished as remote work has taken hold since the coronavirus pandemic, people still want to live in the center of the action, and that’s keeping downtown’s housing, retail and restaurant sectors bustling.
“With falling interest rates and strong population/job growth, I am quite optimistic that the downtown Austin condo market will see a solid year of sales and appreciation in 2024,” said Kevin Burns, a real estate broker who specializes in downtown condo sales and development. “This is following a subpar year of sales in 2023 due to global market issues and high interest rates.”
Burns is the developer of The Modern, a high-rise residential tower now under construction in the Rainey Street District on downtown’s eastern edge.
Burns’ tower is among multiple high-rise towers under construction, some of which are due to open in 2024. Those include:
Demand for downtown living remains strong in Austin, experts say, and one of the newest towers taking shape on the skyline is more evidence.
As the Statesman recently reported, the office market downtown has a glut of space. But the downtown residential market — apartments and condos — is flourishing. People want to live downtown, with all it has to offer, housing market experts and real estate agents say.
In a recent interview, Kevin Burns, an Austin real estate broker whose company specializes in downtown condo sales and development, echoed that view. Burns said the downtown condo market “hasn’t been materially affected by the downturn in the office market.”
With its dining, shopping, arts and entertainment draws, along with access to the hike-and-bike trail, “downtown Austin provides such a high quality of life,” Burns said. “People just want to live downtown.”
On average, the price for a condo unit in a downtown high-rise built since 2010 is just over $1.5 million, Burns said.
“The overall story is that prices have appreciated year over year,” Burns told the Statesman last month. However, he said there was “a bit of a correction this year from the run-up in prices (from the COVID-19 pandemic) and the tremendous increase in interest rates.”
The global pandemic that hit in 2020 left many employees working from home, and to this day many have not returned to an office full time. With the altered work patterns and other economic hardships, downtown Austin’s office market hit pause as many companies laid off workers and cut back on space.
But despite the lull in the office sector, downtown Austin and its desirable housing market continue to thrive.
Kevin Burns, an Austin real estate broker whose company specializes in downtown condo sales and development, said the condo market “hasn’t been materially affected by the downturn in the office market.”
Why not?
“Because people just want to live downtown,” Burns said.
With its many dining, arts and entertainment options, and access to the hugely popular hike-and-bike trail along Lady Bird Lake, “downtown Austin provides such a high quality of life,” he said.
“Top Chef” winner Gabe Erales will open a restaurant in the Rainey Street district downtown, working with Urbanspace Hospitality.
Urbanspace started as a real estate brokerage in Austin and has continued to grow its divisions, most recently moving into development and the hospitality space. While many may fear jumping into the low-profit-margin restaurant industry — especially in an uncertain economy — Kevin Burns, founder and CEO of Urbanspace, has high hopes for the company’s new effort.
Executive chef and co-owner Erales will be working on two concepts: a two-story, sit-down restaurant called Bacalar and Tomalo, a taco, agua fresca and coffee takeaway window. The two eateries will sit on the ground floor of 44 East Ave, a new condominium tower on the edge of Lady Bird Lake developed by Intracorp Projects Ltd. Flintco is the general contractor and Urbanspace oversees condominium sales.
Bacalar, named after part of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, will serve regional Mexican food from the diverse cuisine in the Yucatan region. This Mexican food has influences from different diasporas through Lebanon, Spain, Belize and West Africa, Erales said.
“We’re not looking to be this unidentifiable creation of dishes where people walk in, they have no idea what they’re eating,” Erales said. “There will be the things that people are familiar with and recognize like cochinita pibil. That dish is very special to me because that was the first thing my mom taught me.”
Bacalar has around 7,000 square feet of indoor space and more than 2,000 square feet of outdoor space. It will be able to seat 200 guests. Urbanspace started this project with only a ground floor. It was a challenge to create a space that supports the two projects while including a bar and maximizing the lake view. Merrill Alley, Bacalar co-owner and principal of Urbanspace Interiors, designed a second-floor mezzanine that didn’t exist to enhance the view and add more square footage.
Directly in front of Bacalar is a park that will soon get a revamp with outdoor seating, playscapes and a kayak launch, to which Urbanspace contributed more than $500,000, Burns said.
Burns has always held a passion for real estate, buying the ground-floor spaces of buildings that the company has worked with and adding Urbanspace concepts. The company operates in tens of thousands of square feet inside downtown buildings. Urbanspace’s first venture into hospitality turned the ground floor of The Independent into coffee and cocktail bar Codependent.
The ground floor of a residential tower is the most important aspect of the building because it sets the identity and adds value to the building, Burns said.
While restaurants tend to run on small profit margins, Urbanspace still chose to dive into the market. Burns said his economics differ from an average restaurateur and referred to McDonald’s as a company that makes it money from its real estate, not its hamburgers.
Urbanspace Hospitality has plans to open a bar and cocktail lounge at the ground floor of The Modern, a 56-story residential tower also in the Rainey Street district, slated to open in 2025.
This past week marked two significant milestones for Austin-based firm Urbanspace Real Estate + Interiors’ 56-story condo tower, The Modern Austin Residences, located at 610 Davis St, Austin, TX. The Modern has closed on construction financing and has a site development permit in hand, the two final milestones needed for this development to proceed.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211214006119/en/
The Modern Austin Residences, a 56 story tower has closed its financing with Peregren Capital Group
Kevin Burns, founder of local real estate and design firm Urbanspace, will develop the project with $300+ million of financing from Peregren Capital Group. Although this deal marks Peregren’s first construction financing in Austin, co-founder and Managing Partner Tucker Hughes financed multiple condo deals in Austin prior to launching Peregren with co-founder Tripp Taylor. Two of these high-profile projects include The Seaholm Residences and The Independent, each of which were sold by Urbanspace as the exclusive sales and marketing team. Hughes commented, “Kevin and the Urbanspace team know the Austin condo market better than anyone, and after working with them on Seaholm and The Independent, I was excited for the opportunity to partner with them in a bigger way on The Modern. The design, lifestyle, location, and views coupled with the experienced team that Urbanspace has assembled make it a dream build for every future resident that will call The Modern home.”
Sales for the tower will begin at the end of the first quarter of 2022. Comprised of floor plans ranging from 1 to 4 bedrooms, with prices from the high $400s to $5M+, The Modern Austin has already surpassed 2,000 inquiries for its 346 market-rate units since announcing the project to the market earlier this year.
By Parimal M. Rohit – Staff Writer, Austin Business Journal
December 16, 2021 | 3:56 P.M.
Rainey Street is on track to become ground zero for the latest upward expansion of downtown Austin’s skyline, as a couple of high-rise developments reached significant milestones this week.
The Austin Design Commission on Dec. 13 unanimously recommended plans to build a 49-story apartment tower at 80 Rainey St. Meanwhile, Austin-based Urbanspace Real Estate + Interiors announced Dec. 16 it secured both construction financing and a site development permit to move forward with its 56-story condominium tower, The Modern Austin Residences.
The two buildings represent the latest changes coming to the Rainey area, a district that has already seen extensive transformation in the past decade-plus. Since the area was rezoned for downtown-like density in 2005, it has attracted a slew of bars and restaurants, many of which are now being replaced by skyscrapers.
Austin-based Lincoln Ventures LLC has proposed bringing 644 apartments and multiple bar and restaurant concepts to 80 Rainey, which combines the properties at 78-84 Rainey St.
Meanwhile, Urbanspace’s 346-condo tower at 610 Davis St. will officially move forward with more than $300 million in financing secured from Peregren Capital Group LLC.
The two towers represent about 1,000 more residential units for the area. They will also add to a dramatic alteration of its skyline. Only weeks ago, the 50-story condo tower at 44 East Ave. topped out in the Rainey district.
By Marissa Luck
CoStar News
Urbanspace Real Estate + Interiors has changed some of the initial details about the company’s first development project, planned for the popular Rainey Street District in Austin, Texas.
Since Urbanspace first got approval for the project from the Austin City Council in April, the company has added some floors to the proposed condo building called The Modern, now expected to be 56 stories instead of 51, and changed the address to 610 Davis from 90 Rainey.
The 346-unit tower will be built by Flintco and designed by Nelsen Partners. The architecture firm is known locally for its extensive work at The Domain in North Austin, as well as multiple other projects including the Hyatt Centric Hotel under construction on Congress Avenue.
The Modern project is proposed on the site of a popular bar, Container Bar & Bungalow, which is made up of seven shipping containers stacked on top of one another. The bar is owned by local nightlife maven Bridget Dunlap, who is credited with helping to turn Rainey Street into the nightlife district it is today.