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Edited by Erin Kuschner timeout.com/austin/property @erinito


W Austin OPEN HOUSE Checking in


Austin’s ultra-luxe hotels offer equally lavish residences—and the trend is only growing. By Joel Meares


HAVE YOU EVER found yourself bundled in a stupidly plush robe, propped up in a stupidly big bed, balancing a heaving plate of breakfast on your lap and thinking, Man, I could live in this hotel. At a number of Austin hotels—and some set to open in the next few years—you can. If you have the money, of course. Literal hotel living—owning or


renting in the residences section of a hotel—is commonplace in many major U.S. cities and is about to become more prevalent in our own downtown. You can already check in (for life) at the Michael Graves–designed Four Seasons Residences (98 San Jacinto Blvd; 512-422-2600, residences.fourseasons.com/ private_residences), which opened in 2010 with 166 opulent


Time Out Austin May 11–August 16, 2017


units (there are now fewer, as some residents have combined units). And you can move into one of the 159 units at the Residences at W Austin (210 Lavaca St; 512- 322-9221, block21residences .com) to enjoy some of the priciest apartment real estate in the city and killer hotel amenities,


including 24-hour room service. More hotel residences will


soon join the downtown skyline: The 33-story Austin Proper Hotel and Residences (512-384- 1387, liveaustinproper.com), at West 2nd and Colorado Streets, will open in 2018 with one- to three-bedroom apartments for between $600,000 and $3 million; the 215-unit Gables Residences (512-502-6000, gables.com/communities/texas/ austin), housed in the same long- delayed building as Hotel ZaZa, is expected to open in 2019 at 401 Guadalupe Street. Carrie Spain, director of


Residential Services for the Residences at W Austin, is effusive when describing the perks of hotel life, which include having a top bar, restaurant and spa services in the building and


being able to sign, like a hotel guest, to use them. On top of that, residents get early opportunities to purchase tickets for events at ACL Live. “You name it, we’ll do it,” says Spain. The “we” she refers to are


the 13 staffers who keep the W’s 250 residents in the lap of luxury (doorman services, package delivery, notary needs—yes, they’ll even put your groceries away). If it all sounds expensive,


that’s because it is. Spain says the apartments, which range from one-bedrooms to penthouses, have an average resale value of $1,000 per square foot. At press time, a three-bedroom penthouse on the W Austin’s northeast corner was on the market for just under $4.5 million. It boasts two balconies and three parking spaces, with a Tesla charger. Can Austin handle all this


Four Seasons Residences 54


luxury? Are enough people willing to fork over that much dough for the privilege of permanent hotel life? Spain certainly thinks so. “Every time I think, How are we going to fill another hotel or another high- rise, they seem to sell out quickly,” she says. “I believe if we put another W residences tower in, it would sell out too.”


PHOTOGRAPHS (FROM TOP): PATRICK YU-WEN WONG; COURTESY FOUR SEASONS RESIDENCES


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