Austin’s next niche of downtown to blossom

AUSTIN – The area of downtown centered around Republic Square Park has begun a slow transformation from a bland, parking lot-studded section into a center of urban activity.

The Republic Square area “is a break between the nice area on Second Street and points north," said Chris Bradford, a development lawyer with Coats Rose Ryman Yale PLLC.

“What you’re seeing is [Republic Square] becoming a self-sustaining area” where people can work, live and play, said Terry Mitchell of Momark Development.

The 2012 opening of the federal courthouse, west of the park on the former Intel site, has added jobs and foot traffic to the area, which will increase the demand for nearby retail and residential.
 
Such new activity, combined with the already high demand for new real estate in Austin and the vacant land surrounding Republic Square, meant development wasn’t far off, Mitchell said.

Read more at the Austin Business Journal. Be sure and focus on the Downtown Austin map included in the story.