Lofty
There’s scarcely a plain old apartment or condominium unit to be found anywhere in Austin these days. They’re all magically becoming lofts. When I was out at the Dart Bowl this morning, I noticed the Bruning Lofts, a 15-unit two-story apartment complex not in its first youth, at 51st and Duval. A little looking around suffices to reveal that only the old-fashioned landlords and real-estate promoters haven’t converted to the new terminology.
We included your blog on our new slideshow of Austin Blogs at
http://blogslides.com/austin
I would like to hear about any other blogs you or your readers recommend for this show.
And we’re seeking rockstar programmers to help with our big slideshow project.
I have free housing for rock star programmers and web developers over the summer
http://austincast.com/homeoffice has all the details.
The Bruning Lofts are not lofts. It’s an old student apartment complex that a developer bought, painted, restyled with brushed steel fixtures and dubbed “lofts”. Where I come from a loft is typically an industrial space converted to a residence with an open floor plan. Austin developers and realtors have coopted the concept of loft as a marketing scheme. Couple that with a fresh coat of paint and some modern looking fixtures, and you have the Bruning Lofts.
Bruning was the first of its kind that I noticed, but now I’m seeing this renaming of aging rental complexes all over town. And then there are are the brand-new “lofts” built where old tourist courts used to be (Bel Air and, according to rumor, soon the Don-Mar as well). Is “loft” on the way to replacing “Pointe” (Arbor Pointe, Research Pointe, Bradford Pointe, etc., etc., etc.) as a preferred ingredient of real-estate magic?