1 Hotel Austin is officially open at the base of Waterline, the 74-story tower, which is now the tallest building in Texas.
Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and HKS, the hotel occupies its lowest floors beneath residences and offices, but is the first piece of Waterline to open its doors, with the rest of the tower slated to follow later in 2026.
1 Hotels is the brand built around nature-inspired, sustainable luxury, and it fills the base of the tower on Red River Street at the point where Waller Creek meets Lady Bird Lake. Its 252 rooms sit at the seam between the Rainey Street District and the lakefront. Nothing else in Austin puts a hotel room under a taller roof.
Lincoln Property Company developed the hotel as part of Waterline, which it built with Kairoi Residential. Ground broke in June 2022, and three months later Blackstone Mortgage Trust put $675 million behind the tower, the loan that carried it a little over four years to this opening. Lincoln is not done in Austin. It is co-developing the Four Seasons Private Residences Lake Austin with Austin Capital Partners, a Lissoni & Partners-designed project now under construction for 2029, while in Dallas it has the 200-key Dallas Proper Hotel and Residences underway with Proper Hospitality.
The Rainey Street District has filled in fast around it, and none of the newcomers come close on height. The Travis, a 50-story, 423-residence tower from Genesis Real Estate Group designed by GDA Architects, opened in 2025, and Waterline clears it by 24 floors.
The waterfront itself keeps drawing towers. Related Texas is planning to break ground in February 2028 on One Lady Bird Lake, an 18-story, 298-residence tower on the South Central Waterfront.