Is East Riverside Drive going to become a new upscale apartment neighborhood? (Austin: real estate, 2014)

[CptnRn]

This could trigger a big change in the way we think about that area. If this area continues to gentrify it will drive out all the cheap apartments that are there currently. Its proximity to downtown has to make it a highly desirable location.

New East Riverside housing wave about to arrive | www.mystatesman.com

East Riverside Drive is about to take the next leap forward in its evolution, with the imminent opening of a new wave of development that will add more than 800 upscale apartments to the area, including the first units in Grayco Partners’ South Shore project.

West of Grayco’s project, the four towers in the Riverview high-rise apartment project at Interstate 35 and East Riverside will open in July, bringing 302 units to market. A stone’s throw from Grayco’s project, Austin-based Cypress Real Estate Advisors is planning another phase of its newly opened Lakeshore Pearl apartment project that will bring another 295 units when it debuts in late 2014.

Map: http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/l...aus-grayco.jpg

Another related article: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/busi...de-grow/nXT6Y/

[centralaustinite]

Already in progress, all the cheap apartments on Lakeshore Drive are long gone! And the rents that the new places are getting are outrageous!!

[atxcio]

It should be an upscale neighborhood, it's close to downtown, great public transit, and check out this view:

[mayfair44]

Riverview apts show a rental range up to $7000/month. Recall a write up about a penthouse unit going for that much. Here's one for $3381:

RiverView Austin | Apartment Search

[ScoPro]

When my parents bought their first Austin home in the new single family development on Elmhurst Drive (2 blocks east of I-35 & several blocks south of Riverside)) in 1959, his builder was trying to buy the open pasture/scrubland at the corner of Parker Lane & Riverside.
He refused to pay the $400/acre demanded by the land owner. lol

But yes, that area has quick & easy access to downtown.....or at least it did then. I could drive from my parents' home to the frontage road, and if the Riverside light was favorable to get on I-35, I could turn off at the 6th Street exit in 5 minutes.

Several years later the massive apartment city began to spring up all along Riverside, especially on the south side. IIRC, the first complex was the Arena Place Apartments. All of them were quickly filled up by UT students, with some of my friends renting in the ones just mentioned. We thought they were pretty nice with wall to wall carpeting, fireplaces, & swimming pools. Lots of great parties.

Of course, auto traffic increased - but the private bus company contracted by UT carried thousands of students directly to campus.

By the 1980s most of those cheaply built complexes were "ghetto-ized" with a corresponding increase in crime. Lots of students moved out - to the redeveloping West Campus & Northwest Hills. Some of those Riverside complexes were closed for years.

When my Mom passed away in 1992, Dad was afraid to live in that area any longer, so he sold his home of 33 years and moved to a retirement complex in Northwest Hills. He had a great time there for about 7 years until a stroke forced him into a nursing home facility for his remaining life.

[Komeht]

It's about time the city recognized Riverside was horribly misused and had vast untapped potential.

[CptnRn]

Back in 1977 when we first moved here to attend UT we lived in an apartment in Rivertown on Wickersham Lane. We could not wait to get out of there and move into an apartment out on E. Manor Rd., NE of the Mueller Airport, it was such a big improvement over Rivertown.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Back in 1977 when we first moved here to attend UT we lived in an apartment in Rivertown on Wickersham Lane. We could not wait to get out of there and move into an apartment out NE of the Mueller Airport, it was such a big improvement over Rivertown.

What complex was Rivertown? The names must have been changed by the time we arrived in the 1990s. I lived for 7 years on Wickersham Lane, great complex! great people, made life-long friends. It was mainly all grad students, and student families.

Most of those complexes on Wickersham are now filled with senior citizens and working class families. The students have moved into the new student-complexes (rent per bedroom on individual leases) that are east of Wickersham (and north of Riverside).

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Back in 1977 when we first moved here to attend UT we lived in an apartment in Rivertown on Wickersham Lane. We could not wait to get out of there and move into an apartment out on E. Manor Rd., NE of the Mueller Airport, it was such a big improvement over Rivertown.

The wife & I lived in one of those two-story 4-plexes on Manor Circle in 1969.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

What complex was Rivertown? The names must have been changed by the time we arrived in the 1990s. I lived for 7 years on Wickersham Lane, great complex! great people, made life-long friends. It was mainly all grad students, and student families.

Most of those complexes on Wickersham are now filled with senior citizens and working class families. The students have moved into the new student-complexes (rent per bedroom on individual leases) that are east of Wickersham (and north of Riverside).

Back in the late 70's most of the students I associated with at UT called the whole Riverside Drive area "Rivertown". When we lived on Wickersham Lane there were a lot of noisy, wild partying undergraduates living there. One day a bunch of drunk students literally beat down the locked door of an apartment across from ours and attacked one of the occupants. We called the cops. We did not care for being in the middle of that.