Downtown Austin could get its second supertall. Plans filed with the city this month show a 71-story hotel and condo tower rising 993 feet at Fourth and Congress, directly across the street from Frost Bank Tower.

The rezoning application calls it Project Bolo. The design package submitted for historic review calls it Austin Lineage. Read together, the city filings tell a bigger story than the headline height: what the tower would replace, who owns the dirt, and a 207-foot gap between the building on paper and the height being requested.

The tower splits roughly in half. About 30 floors are hotel, with 221 rooms and a fifth-floor pool deck overlooking Congress Avenue. Nearly 30 more floors hold 87 condos, with an amenity level on the 34th floor and penthouses at the top.

The ground floor is planned for cafe and bar space, with a drop-off area on Fourth Street. The project's representatives have said the plans are still subject to change.

The current design is 993 feet. That would pass Sixth and Guadalupe to become the second-tallest building in Austin, 32 feet short of Waterline, the 1,025-foot tower on Red River Street that is currently the tallest building in Texas.

It would also qualify as a supertall. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat sets that bar at 300 meters, or 984 feet, and its database counts 173 completed supertalls worldwide. This design clears the line by nine feet.

Here is where the filings get interesting. In late October the owners applied to rezone the site under the Downtown Density Bonus program, from DDB400 to DDB850, according to the application as reported by the Austin American-Statesman. DDB400 lets participating projects reach 750 feet. DDB850 allows up to 1,200.

The design submitted this month stops at 993. That leaves 207 feet of requested height that no public drawing uses. A tower built to the full 1,200 would top Waterline by 175 feet and take the Texas title.

Zoning is not the only limit. The application lists the property as subject to a Capitol View Corridor and the Congress Avenue Overlay, and a bigger density bonus does not override either one.

The site covers 402 and 408 Congress Ave., at the corner of Congress Avenue and Fourth Street, directly across from Frost Bank Tower. It is 0.42 acres. Today it is a surface parking lot and a vacant two-story building that last housed a Newk's Eatery.

It sits inside the Congress Avenue National Register Historic District. That is why both the demolition of the old building and the design of the new one go through the city's Historic Landmark Commission.

The building at 408 Congress is older than almost everything around it. A city historic preservation report prepared for the Historic Landmark Commission's November 5, 2025 meeting dates its oldest section to before 1885, based on Sanborn fire insurance maps.

The report traces 140 years of tenants. A fruit and confectionery grocery in the 1880s. A plumber named John L. Martin from 1903 to 1922. A furniture warehouse and manufacturer from the late 1920s into the 1940s. After a 1946 remodel came a package store, then a sporting goods store, a bookstore, furniture sales, and a uniform shop. The roof was modified in 1996 and 2004 so patrons could use it. More recently the storefront was a Newk's Eatery.

All those remodels are why staff did not argue to save it. The report says the building meets the age test but that "decades of renovations have undermined its architectural integrity." A 2025 downtown survey rated it low priority. Staff recommended releasing the demolition permit once a documentation package is complete, while encouraging reuse, relocation, or salvage instead. Community Impact reports the request was approved.

The report also notes that the commission "must review plans for new construction in National Register districts before demolition permits may be pulled." The tower design submitted for historic review this month is that new construction.

One more detail from the record. A contractor's project summary shows the building's exposed south wall, the one facing the parking lot, received a full masonry restoration between February and August 2025. The summary describes the building as home to Skyhouse Lounge, a rooftop barbershop and cocktail bar. The demolition request reached the commission three months later.

Not like the glass towers around it. The design is art deco-inspired, with a facade of concrete, milled stone, and dark metal accents, topped by a multi-story decorative crown.

The review package names its influences: the Chrysler Building and the American Radiator Building in New York, and the Carbide & Carbon Building in Chicago. It describes the tower as "richly articulated" and says the design "keeps Austin weird."

Two companies own the land, according to the rezoning application as reported by the Statesman. JDF Congress Avenue LLC owns 402 Congress. 408 Congress Avenue LLC owns 408. Austin-based Armbrust & Brown is the authorized agent for both, and attorney Richard Suttle Jr. signed the application.

The design materials came from three firms: Lanoha, KPF, and House & Robertson Architects. Lanoha Real Estate Company is an Omaha developer founded in 1988, and its project list includes the Mutual of Omaha headquarters. KPF is the firm that designed Waterline.

Nobody is talking yet. The three firms and Armbrust & Brown did not respond to Community Impact, and Suttle did not respond to the Statesman.

Nobody has said. There is no announced construction start, completion date, or project cost. The city lists the rezoning case as under review, and no public hearing dates have been reported.

At 993 feet, this would be the tallest building on Congress Avenue and only the second in Austin to reach supertall height. It would stand directly across the street from the 515-foot Frost Bank Tower, at nearly twice its height.

It is also an early test of the city's new rules. City Council approved the taller density bonus districts in May. Within six months, a site capped at 750 feet was asking for 1,200.

Its 221 hotel rooms would also add to downtown's supply around the time the rebuilt Austin Convention Center opens, which is set for 2029.

The neighbors are watching. Michael Girard owns Speakeasy, the bar next door that turns 30 next year. He told KVUE he expects the long-term benefits to outweigh the disruption of construction.