Austin: Mercury Hall to be Razed for Five-Story Apartment Complex
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Feature Photos: Scenes from Mercury Hall Chapel, a popular wedding venue, circa 1904, which will be razed in January to make way for a multi-story apartment complex. Images: Google Streets, Mercury Hall.
Posted: 10/1/2021
by Adolfo Pesquera
Austin (Travis County) – Mercury Hall, a popular South Austin venue, will be permanently closing after December 31st to make way for a five-story apartment complex.
The project architect informed the state regulator on Thursday that construction of the apartment building is expected to begin on January 7, 2022 with the start of demolition and other site work. According to the information, the developer keeps the name Mercury Hall.
The reported estimated cost of this project is $ 45 million and includes 270,357 square feet of new residential buildings with associated recreational space. According to the site plan, an attached parking garage provides an additional area of 126,391 square meters for 358 vehicles.
The design office is Wilder Belshaw Architects (Austin office) and the developer is Slate real estate partner, a Houston-based company. courtesy is the civil engineer.
This project included a rededication application to change a 0.847 acre portion of the site from General Commercial Services to General Commercial Services with a vertical mixed use building to allow for increased building height and density. The entire project area comprises 3,785 acres.
Slate Real Estate Partners did not handle the rezoning directly; the property was under the control of at that time Merc Properties Ltd.
The city council approved this proposal on September 17, 2020 despite opposition from the neighborhood. The property is on the southwest corner of Cardinal Lane and South 1st Street. Mercury Hall Chapel was at 601 Cardinal Lane, but the apartment building may be at a different address.
Mercury Hall opened in 2005 and has been a popular venue for weddings, wedding receptions, and other social gatherings over its 16 year history. The demolition permit, which according to city records was approved on July 8, 2021, included a review of the historical structure; The 2,237-square-foot chapel / clubhouse was built in 1904. Three smaller buildings on site – a changing room, shed, and office – also date from the early 20th century.
Slate Real Estate Partners considered reserving 10% of the units for renters earning less than the area’s average family income. It will comprise a total of 265 residential units. A city planner informed them Austin Monitor that at the time of the site plan, the owner can request a waiver of certain site development standards in exchange for the provision of affordable housing.
The complex was described as consisting of three parts – a three-story residential wing, which reaches up to five stories at the top, and a five-story parking garage, which includes some residential units in part of the ground floor and cuts for courtyards.
The building and garage have a total area of 97,338 square meters. Including driveways and other hardscaping, the proposed total density is 67.6%.
A lawyer who represents the developer in the vote on the development, Richard Suttle, said the development would include a pocket park and the owner would take great care to preserve trees in the far southwest corner of the property adjacent to the Cardinal Lane Condominiums.
The construction work should be completed by July 2023.
VBX project ID: 2021-58C1
adolfo@virtulbx.com
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