If you have lived downtown for more than a couple of years, you already have a mental map. Coffee somewhere off Congress. Dinner in the Warehouse District or the west side of 6th. A walk to the lake that involves waiting out the light at Cesar Chavez. That map is now out of date.
On June 6, Waterloo Greenway Conservancy and the City of Austin opened Waterloo Greenway, Phase II: The Confluence, spanning 13 acres along Waller Creek between 4th Street and Lady Bird Lake, a $91.5 million public-private project. What that sentence undersells is the geography. Downtown's most walkable stretch is no longer running east-west across the middle of the grid. It is running north-south along the creek, and almost every notable opening of the last twelve months sits within a few blocks of it.
The 800 feet that rewired the south end of downtown
The Confluence added a lot of ribbon-cutting features, but one piece of infrastructure changed how residents actually move. An 800-foot long boardwalk along Waller Creek allows trail users to bypass intersections at Red River St. and Cesar Chavez St. If you have ever tried to jog from a Rainey Street condo to the Butler Trail on a Saturday morning, you know those two crossings were the whole problem.
The rest of the park reads as connective tissue. Three lattice bridges provide new east-west pedestrian connections over Waller Creek. A continuous, off-street bike and pedestrian trail connects the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, Palm Park, Rainey St., and the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail. New public gathering spaces include a Lagoon Overlook and Leaf Deck adjacent to Lady Bird Lake, the shaded Lakeview Terrace and Explorers Garden, and a new connection to Waller Creek and the Waterloo Greenway Trail at 4th St. with the Cypress Grove and Trailhead Plaza.
The ecological work is easy to miss on a first walk but worth naming. Environmental benefits include the stabilization of the creek banks, improved water quality, over 200,000 new plants and 1,600 new trees. Under the shade canopy this summer, the temperature difference against the surrounding blocks is real.
The Confluence is the southern anchor of a 1.5-mile, off-street trail that eventually runs from Waterloo Park at 15th Street down to Lady Bird Lake without crossing a single busy street. Today about a mile of that is in place; the segment from 4th to 12th is still to come.
With The Confluence complete, Waterloo Greenway turns its attention to Palm Park at 200 N I-35 and Phase III from 4th Street to 12th Street, which will finish the 1.5-mile universally accessible trail along Waller Creek and bring the total to 35 acres of connected green space through the heart of downtown.
Where the new spine actually leads you
Here is why the map is the story. Look at where the 2025–2026 wave of downtown openings landed, sorted by which side of the new spine they sit on.
| Place | What it is | Where | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kinsho | Rainey's first sushi bar, 18 seats | Rainey Street | 2026 |
| Bar Hacienda | Cocktail speakeasy in the basement of Tiger Lily | Rainey area | April 10, 2026 |
| Alteño Austin | Michelin-recognized Mexican from Fonda Fina Hospitality | Rainey district | 2026 |
| VanHorn's | Casual New York–style steakhouse | Downtown | November 2025 |
| Restaurant François | French-American | Downtown | November 24, 2025 |
| Kappo Kappo | 11-course French-Japanese tasting menu | Downtown | November 2025 |
| Grá Mór | Irish cafe from the Dead Rabbit team, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. | Former Neighbourhood Cafe space | 2026 |
| Black Sheep Coffee | London chain, ground floor of 6G Residences | W. 6th & Guadalupe | January 15, 2026 |
| Golden Ace | Cocktail lounge from Christian Suzuki-Orellana | Downtown | April 2026 |
| Sweet Sensi Lounge | Cocktail bar with a CBD menu | One block south of Paramount Theatre | January 17, 2026 |
| Ciccio Bomba | Italian bakery co-owned by Tom Segura | Inside Fareground | November 2025 |
| Moderna Bar & Pizzeria | Italian lunch and dinner | Downtown | December 11, 2025 |
| Driskill Grill | American steakhouse under MML with chef April Bloomfield | The Driskill | May 18, 2026 |
Sources for these openings include reporting from Tribeza, which noted Rainey Street's first sushi spot Kinsho, from the team behind Rocco's Italian, led by chef Victor Gonzalez, formerly of Uchiko and Lucky Robot, with an 18-seat sushi bar anchoring the space, and City Cast Austin, which tracked Sweet Sensi Lounge opening a block south of Paramount Theatre on Jan. 17, Black Sheep Coffee opening downtown on Jan. 15, Moderna Bar & Pizzeria on Dec. 11 with pizza, pasta, and sandwiches, Restaurant François opening downtown on Nov. 24, Ciccio Bomba inside Fareground in November co-owned by comedian Tom Segura, and VanHorn's serving oysters, shrimp cocktail, lobster, and New York strips.
The pattern is not subtle. Rainey Street, which for years read as a bar strip with nowhere to actually eat, now has a Michelin-caliber Mexican restaurant, a serious sushi program, and a cocktail bar built underneath one of its landmarks. And Grá Mór, from the team at sister Dead Rabbit pub and taking over the former Neighbourhood Cafe space, is a cozy daytime spot to gather from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily with strong coffee, craft cocktails, and unique bites like Scotch eggs and jalapeño-cheddar sausage rolls. That is a real breakfast option in a corner of downtown that did not have one.
The Driskill quietly rejoined the map
Originally opened in 1929, Driskill Grill is considered one of Austin's most historic dining rooms, the place where Lyndon B. Johnson and Claudia Taylor carried out their first date. The Grill was temporarily closed as the hotel underwent renovations, and once officially reopened, it will be under the direction of New York restaurateur April Bloomfield and operated by Austin's MML Hospitality, including a new bar, The Victorian. The iconic hotel restaurant returned as an American steakhouse under the MML umbrella and opened on Monday, May 18. If you had written off the Driskill as a hotel bar for tourists, that is no longer accurate.
The fall date to hold on your calendar
The best argument for the new spine is what happens on it in November. Creek Show 2026 will activate Waller Creek at Phase II of Waterloo Greenway between 4th St and Lady Bird Lake, with the completed installations open to the public from November 13–21, 2026. Since its debut in 2014, Creek Show has become a celebration of light, art, and the evolution of Waterloo Greenway, and it is now heading downstream to Phase II: The Confluence.
For a decade Creek Show meant a walk near 10th and Red River. This year the whole event has moved to a park most residents have not yet walked through. If you live in Rainey or the eastern half of downtown, it will land in your backyard.
One practical note for July walkers
If you use the Butler Trail on the north shore, expect a squeeze this month. The Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail will be narrowed on the north shore near the Confluence and Austin Rowing Club building for Austin Water emergency repairs during July 2026. The Confluence lattice bridge and trail that connects the east bank trail of the Waterloo Greenway to the Waller Creek Boat House will be closed until the work is completed, and Waterloo Greenway users will be rerouted further south to the Hartman Bridge crossing on the Butler Trail. Worth knowing if your morning loop runs through there.
The real change
None of this is a single-item story. A new park is nice. A cluster of restaurants is nice. What is different in downtown Austin in the summer of 2026 is that both of those things happened along the same axis in the same year. A Rainey resident can walk under a shaded canopy, cross a lattice bridge, eat sushi they used to Uber for, and end the night watching light installations along a creek that most of downtown ignored a year ago. The residents who lived here for the 2010s built their routines around 2nd Street and the Warehouse District because that was where the density was. The density has moved. Your Saturday can move with it, or it can stay where it was.
If you own downtown and are thinking about how these shifts change what your address is worth, or you are looking at a Rainey or east-downtown building and want a read on which side of the new spine matters, that is the conversation we like having. Austin Home Girls Realty is a boutique, broker-owned brokerage a short walk from The Confluence, and we know these blocks the way you know your own street.
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