Real Estate Center Online News (RECON) May 12, 2006 Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. Material herein is published according to the fair-use doctrine of U.S. copyright laws related to non-profit, educational institutions. Items attributed to sources other than the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University should not be reprinted without permission of the original source.

CELEBRATED ARCHITECTS DESIGNING AUSTIN HIGH-RISE

AUSTIN (statesman.com) – A 47-story mixed-use tower being designed by world-renowned Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects is set to rise on the northeast corner of Fifth Street and Congress Avenue. Tentatively named “the Fifth and Congress tower,” the building could be the city's tallest. Construction is slated to begin this summer.

Preliminary designs have the 700-foot tower housing 925,000 square feet of condominiums, retail space and offices or a hotel. Austin-based T. Stacy & Associates and Walton Street Capital are the developers. Stacy plans 180 to 200 condominiums, priced at $500 to $600 per square foot, with average unit size of 1,150 square feet. Condos will be on the tower's top floors, starting above the height of the nearby 26-story Bank of America building.

The project includes a 12-story, 1,200-space parking garage at Fifth and Brazos Streets to be constructed later this year.

Although there are no taller buildings in Austin now, another developer plans a condominium tower several blocks away that could rival this one. Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects have designed landmark towers in Malaysia, Mexico City and Tokyo, as well as the Modern Art and Museum Tower in New York.