Thinking about renting an apartment at the Eleven by Windsor in Austin? I wrote up this guide to help you out.
But first a little about me:
I’m an apartment locator who has worked with hundreds of clients and apartment buildings throughout Austin. I mostly work with apartments in East Austin and Downtown Austin. This has given me a deep knowledge of each building in the area and how they compare to each other.
BUT my review of the Eleven will be different for one main reason.
I live here!
Having recently signed my third-year lease, I’ve had over two years to develop an intimate understanding of this building, the neighborhood, and how it compares to the competition.
So while I do have my own biases about Eleven by Windsor and East Austin, I know it’s not right for all of my clients. I wrote this guide to meticulously describe what it’s like living here. My guide will cover the neighborhood, the building, it’s amenities, pricing, and my overall thoughts.
My goal is to help you decide if living here is right for you.
Location
The obvious place to start with any apartment is its location. With the Eleven, it’s location is one of it’s most valuable features. Straddled between Downtown Austin and East Austin, Eleven is on E 11th St positioned as the gateway to the Eastside. A quick walk takes you to the Texas Capitol building. The Eleven is a few blocks away from East Austin’s core, East 6th Street. While this may deter you if you want to be in the heart of the action, I would hold your reservation.
Walkability
I adore walking around this neighborhood. For being some distance away from Downtown it’s ranked around 86 from Walk Score, a site that rates the accessibility of neighborhood amenities based on walking versus driving, so that’s pretty good!
East 11th Street is one of the most unique streets in Austin. Having lived here for over two years, I can easily say it’s become one of my favorites streets in all of Austin. It blends the best of a charming historical residential neighborhood and a lively oasis of restaurants and bars including:
- Nickel City – A great bar with a wide selection of whiskey
- Hillside Farmacy – An eatery boasting tasty simple eats
- Paper Boy – Serving up all your breakfast needs
- Quickie Pickie -Renowned for their tacos, sandwiches, and store
- Kenny Durgman’s Backyard – A food truck park with live music
- Franklin Barbecue – The legendary BBQ!
That being said, walking lets you enjoy the bustle of East Austin from grabbing a drink, getting a bite, to listening to some jams. From the Eleven a 10-minute walk takes you to East 6th, where many bars, music venues, and the not so main stream culture of Austin is. A 20-minute walk or a quick drive will grant you easy access to the walking and running trails along the river. If you’re lucky you might even see me walking there!
If you’re worried about noise or highway noise, don’t be! Even though Downtown is right across the street, the East Austin side is calm and quaint. If you’re looking for a more centralized Downtown location, Eleven is probably not the best choice. It takes about 15-20 minutes of walking to get closer to the core of Downtown. There are many other apartments that will give you better Downtown access.
Commute
Eleven is located right along I35, one of Austin’s main highways. This makes getting around town extremely easy. I can get to roughly 90% of my typical hang-outs within a 15-20 minute drive. South Austin, North Austin, The Domain and even West Austin all feel relatively close.
Noise is one drawback of being so close to the highway. If you are noise-sensitive, you would not want to be on the West/highway facing side of the building. However, there are plenty of units at the Eleven which are insulated enough from highway noise.
The Building
Style
While it was built in 2013, the Eleven by Windsor is actually one of the older modern buildings in East Austin. There are over 7 newer complexes around this area. This relative “oldness” shows itself in plain generic modernity architecture. By no means would I call it hip or distinctively cool, but it does get the job done. There’s a lot more awesome perks inside, so don’t disregard it for looking “normal”.
Floor Plans
The Eleven offers a wide variety of floor plans for a luxury apartment. There are tiny shoe-box studios, 1×1’s, to large spacious two-bedroom plans. Even among the 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom units, there’s a large selection of apartment styles from generic box style to more intricate ones.
1 Bedrooms
The most popular floor plan, the A2, is one of my favorite 1 bedroom layouts. Some of the others are the standard box-style layouts.
1 Bedroom A2 Floorplan Video Tour
Studios
Eleven has some shoe-boxed sized studios, but the high ceilings make it feel less cramped. They go as low as 416 sqft, to larger 700 sqft plans. Here is a video tour of a 456 sqft plan.
Eleven Studio Video Tour
2 Bedrooms
Eleven has the standard roommate-style B1 floor plan at 1056 sqft. While it’s small, it’s just large enough to make it not feel cramped. There are a few other larger floor plans with much more space.
2 Bedroom B1 Video Tour
Key Unit Features
High Ceilings
One key feature you’ll notice that’s unique to Eleven is that every unit has high ceilings. This makes even the smallest floor plans seem larger. As somebody who is 6’3. I’m a big fan of this.
Flooring
One of my favorite features of Eleven is the total absence of carpet. No. Carpet. Ever.
The first and 3rd-floor units come with concrete flooring, which is nice if you have pets that scratch up hardwood. If that’s not a problem for you, the 2nd the 4th floor units come with REAL rich hardwood flooring.
However, there is one downside and that’s the noise. If you have particularly stompy upstairs neighbors, you will hear them. Aim for a top floor unit if you’re worried about this (or if you want to proclaim I AM THE ONE WHO STOMPS).
Kitchen & Appliances
It should be no surprise that paired with their hardwood floors is granite countertops. These off beige countertops pair nicely with the modern stainless steel appliances found through every unit.
Also, the entire building including appliances are Energy Star Certified, so you can keep bills down.
Balconies
Almost all of the apartments at the Eleven come with balconies. Most of them are large enough accommodate some furniture to relax and sit outside, but some only have Juliette balconies, where you cant. If having a balcony isn’t a dealbreaker for you, some of the units have none at all.
Washer & Dryer
Every unit at the Eleven comes with a full-sized washer and dryer. While this has become more common throughout modern apartments, it’s still very nice to have.
Large Walk-in Closets
One popular feature here is a huge walk-in closets. I never knew how much I would enjoy this until I had it. Even the shoe-box studios have well sized closets.
Amenities
Fitness Center
I’m not a huge fan of the gym here. It’s a fairly basic gym with some free weights, machines, and cardio equipment. It’s good enough for a quick workout, but not worth canceling your existing gym membership.
Pool
I really like Eleven’s pool area.
It’s large enough where you can host a few of your friends without overlapping with other groups. Compared to other buildings during the summer pool party season, Eleven’s is relatively mild.
It never gets to the point where it feels like a rowdy college party, but it’s social enough where you can come down on a sunny day and meet your neighbors.
I’ve been known to throw a nice social shindig every now and then.
Community Space
Eleven comes with two main social/community spaces. The pool level room is a large social space perfect for entertaining guests. I’ve thrown quite a few events here myself!
But the real winner here is the Sky Lounge, a rooftop lounge area boasting an amazing view. Hands down Eleven’s sky lounge is one of the coolest amenities of any apartment in Austin.
Overlooking Downtown Austin, the sky-lounge is an amazing way to experience the Austin skyline, especially at night. Even better, there is an enclosed room shut off from the highway noise where you can throw a nice night time social event overlooking the beautiful skyline.
Office Space
This is one of the most useful amenities in the building. The first floor has an office room with four sound-proof enclosed office spaces perfect for people who work remotely. One former roommate of mine used this as his primary workspace. Of course, there is wi-fi in the office space, but there’s also hotspots located throughout many of the other amenity areas. The biggest bonus is that you can watch people waiting in line at Franklin’s all morning.
Dog Park & Spa
Good news for dog owners, because The Eleven is a pet-friendly community. The dog park is a dream come true. The building has one of the largest apartment dog parks in the city. I would say it’s easily the best one in both East Austin and Downtown.
The park is a large fenced in terraced region along the side of the building. It’s a legitimately nice place to hang out, meet the neighbors, and relax with a cold beer. There is a ton of space for dogs to run around and play. Additionally, right next to the dog park in the garage is a dog “spa” where you can wash your dog.
If you do have a dog, I would try to find a unit near the south side of the building for better proximity.
Parking
Eleven’s parking garage is below the building. I didn’t realize how much I would like this. Being right below the buildings means bringing up groceries is a simple elevator or stair case away.
At $35 per spot, parking is much cheaper than almost anything you’ll find in Downtown. Even many East Austin apartments charge $50+ per spot. Combining both parking levels, there is never any issue with lack of parking spots.
Management
Management is one of Eleven’s strengths. Windsor is one of the few management companies that owns and manages their own buildings. You are unlikely to experience chaos inducing management turnover that plagues many other buildings. Their office hours are pretty standard, where they don’t work on Sundays.
The staff is friendly and professional. However, I do wish that Windsor was a bit less “corporate” and let their employees express more personality.
Prices
By now, you may be reading this and feel like “Oh wow this place is amazing! I want to sign here immediately!”
Yes, I would understand that. But then come the prices. I’ll explain what you should look for in a good deal.
Studios
Studios at Eleven can be the cheapest way to live in Downtown/East Austin. While small, they can be a perfect fit. I would consider anything under $1500 a steal. Anything between $1500 and $1600 is a decent deal. The larger 700sqft studios should be compared to 1 bedrooms.
1 Bedrooms
The typical 1 bedrooms range from $1600-$2000. Anything under $1700 for a 1 bedroom would be a solid deal. I don’t think I would recommend a 1 bedroom over $1900 unless it’s huge
2 Bedrooms
Two bedrooms can vary wildly. Anything below $2100 is a steal. Anything below $2300 is a pretty good deal. $2300-$2600 is typical, but anything above $2700 would be stretching it in my opinion.
Overall Thoughts
As somebody who just signed my third year lease, I’m clearly a fan of living here. Many of my clients have moved in here and loved it. However some have had issues with the noisey neighbors.
I absolutely adore this neighborhood. East 11th is an awesome street dripping with history, culture, and personality.
The Eleven, even though it’s an “older” modern building, stacks up very well against the newer buildings in the neighborhood. For my clients It’s frequently a top 3 option.
If you want the proximity to both Downtown and East Austin, few locations are better. If you want to be right in the core of either neighborhood however, this probably isn’t the place for you. There are plenty of buildings closer to the cores of Downtown, and East Austin.
Are you looking for a new apartment in Downtown or East Austin?
If you found this guide useful, you may like my comprehensive guides on Downtown and East Austin apartments below.
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