A nearly 5-acre estate alongside the Colorado River in Austin, Texas, is up for sale, asking $25.5 million for three parcels, or $19 million for two.
Whether the buyer purchases all three parcels or just two, the sale includes the 10,227-square-foot main home on Island Cove, a canal within the exclusive Island community on Lake Austin.
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The three-story stone-and-stucco home, built in 1999 and renovated by the seller, was made for entertaining. It features five bedrooms, three kitchens and eight living areas—including a game room, a poolside lounge, and a den with a humidor for after-dinner socializing. There are also formal and informal dining rooms, a walk-in freezer and three guest rooms with an attached kitchenette and a safe room.
The outdoor area includes a pool and hot tub, an outdoor kitchen, and perhaps most importantly—a swim-up bar. There is also a two-slip boat garage and boat dock on the inlet, which leads to Lake Austin.
The seller is Mike Rypka, founder of taco chain Torchy’s Tacos, who purchased the adjacent lots in 2017 through a trust, according to property records and public documents. Rypka added the third adjacent property on Island Avenue in 2020.
When Rypka purchased the property it had large uninviting spaces, gaudy gold lions and purple carpets. It felt “very ’80s,” he told Austin Monthly in 2020. So he hired Britt Design Group to redesign the interiors and update the home, which involved reconfiguring rooms, adding hardwood flooring, and completely overhauling the finishes in the bathrooms and kitchen, according to documents shared by listing agent Eric Moreland of Moreland Properties.
“This listing is one of the largest acreage offerings currently available for sale on Lake Austin that is located “inside” the Pennybacker Bridge on the Austin side of the lake,” Moreland said.
The agent listed the property over the weekend, and it’s selling for the first time in this configuration. The second parcel is zoned for residential use but can also be kept as a green space, while the third lot has an existing home on the property. Together, the three parcels span 4.8 acres and have 450 feet of water frontage, per the listing. Rypka could not immediately be reached for comment.
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The $25 million price tag for the three parcels makes Rypka’s estate the most-expensive property on the market in Austin, while the $19 million asking price for the two parcels alone is pretty high up there. Only two other listings are asking more: Another waterfront home on Lake Austin asking $19.5 million and a Westlake home asking $19.9 million.
Rypka, a former commercial chef, started Torchy’s as a food truck in Austin in 2006. By 2010, Torchy’s was transitioning to permanent outposts, and today, there are over 120 locations in 16 states, about half of which are in Texas.