A revitalized area of downtown Austin is beginning to take shape with the start of construction May 30 on the new Central Public Library and construction on the Seaholm Redevelopment Project that began April 16.

"[This district] will remake this area of downtown," Mayor Lee Leffingwell said.

The Seaholm Development District encompasses a formerly industrial section of downtown that is roughly bounded by Lady Bird Lake and Fifth streets and San Antonio Street and Lamar Boulevard. The area is about 85 acres in size and is envisioned to be an urban destination that includes housing, retail, transportation and green space. The library and former power plant are the cornerstones for the development.

Seaholm Redevelopment

John Rosato, a real estate broker with Southwest Strategies Group and managing partner with the SRP, said the area was picked for redevelopment because of the power plant and its historical and architectural significance.

"The driving force, obviously, is saving the iconic building," Rosato said. "It's a historic structure. It's going to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Austin doesn't have a large stock of older industrial buildings. There are very few in town as opposed to San Antonio or Houston, so that's why [we're working] here. It's because of this building."

Fred Evins, redevelopment project manager with the city of Austin Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office, said the style of the power plant is unique and worth preserving.

"One of the things that caught my ear [was] when I was first being told about the building, I was reminded that this was kind of the end of an era of power production facilities being treated as architecture," Evins said. "It has a very nice art deco enclosure of public pride and public infrastructure that very, very soon after this was built, [industrial projects] started going to the very utilitarian [design]."

Jim Susman, principal architect with STG Design—the architecture firm working on the project—said there are four components to the SRP, including the renovation and preservation of the power plant facility, construction of an apartment complex tower with parking, a two-story building for retail and a three-level parking garage below the apartment tower.

The apartment complex will be a 30-story tower with 309 apartments for rent and will have about 400 parking spaces included in the building. The two-story, 66,000-square-foot building will have retail and office space that includes a Trader Joe's—a specialty grocery store—expected to open in 2014. The 112,000-square-foot power plant will have retail, office and event space, and the underground parking garage will be able to accommodate about 500 cars.

Redeveloping a building built in the 1950s that was never intended for commercial use comes with its share of challenges, according to Rosato. He said the redevelopment is a balance between saving enough of the building to keep its industrial feel while making sure it is safe and functional.

"The one thing that developers hate is that [redeveloping older buildings is] unpredictable because you've got this old building, and when you start taking it apart, you're really not sure what you're going to find," Rosato said. "In this particular case, we're finding some really cool things, but we may run across something that's not so cool and we didn't take into account. That's the downside to it."

Evins said the city's investment in the redevelopment project is $24.5 million. The city expects to collect $9.9 million through parking garage fees, and over 30 years, the city expects to collect $15.4 million in property taxes and $2.7 million in sales taxes from the development. Private development investment in the project is more than $100 million, Evins said.

The two-story building and the power plant are expected to be completed by November 2014. The apartment complex is expected to begin leasing by 2015.

New Central Public Library

The biggest piece of public investment in the district is going to be the new Central Public Library, according to Leffingwell. John Gillum, facilities process manager with APL, said there has been significant support for library projects throughout the years, and the trend has continued for the central library.

"[Austin is] kind of an overgrown university town, and people are really concerned about education and knowledge in general," Gillum said. "They want it accessible, and they want it accessible for their children."

The entire library project will cost about $120 million, with $90 million coming from an approved 2006 bond. The library is going to be a six-story structure with a two-level parking garage underneath that will have about 200 spaces. Other library

amenities will include a 350-seat event space, an amphitheater on Shoal Creek and a restaurant. The library will also have about 200 bicycle parking spaces. Library staff expect to have a collection of more than 500,000 books as well as a catalog of e-books that residents will be able to check out.

"People like to get their information in a lot of different formats," Gillum said. "They love to get it on their laptops, [and] teenagers think [smartphones] are the alpha and the omega. If they can't hold it in their hand, they're not interested. There are people that use everything—they check out downloadables from us, they check out books and CDs and DVDs. We understand it, and we're going to provide everything as best we can."

Gillum said the 200,000-square-foot library is designed to be a sustainable building with a water collection system that will catch rainwater and condensation from the air-conditioning units. Officials expect 13 percent of the power used by the library will be generated by solar panels installed on the building, officials said.

The library will have its grand opening near summer 2016.

Gillum said another focus in the design of the library is on outdoor space. The library will have park space outside for patrons to relax. Road renovations that will extend Second Street over Shoal Creek and West Avenue down to Cesar Chavez Street also are planned. Second Street near the new library will become what is called a festival street and include flat curbs and removable bollards so the street can be closed to traffic and turned into a plaza-like area for

festivals.

"We'll be that great third place between work and home where everybody's entitled to go and wants to go and see and be seen," Gillum said. "We're going to try to make this building just infinitely

interesting."