[JoninATX]

Mexic-Arte seeking $10 million from city for new downtown building

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 10:30 p.m. Sunday, April 29, 2012

Saying that they want to bring a $30 million iconic building to a prominent downtown corner, backers of Mexic-Arte Museum are asking the City of Austin for $10 million in bond money to be included in the November bond election.

"We could build a plain box, but we have the chance to build an iconic structure that will drive tourism and be a landmark for the city," said John Hogg, president of the museum board.

Mexic-Arte occupies a three-story building on the southeast corner of Congress Avenue and Fifth Street.

Conceptual plans by Mexican architect Fernando Romero show a cylindrically shaped six-story building clad in translucent material. Hogg said that the building's unusual shape is a reference to the Aztec calendar. "It's representative of Mexico and Mexican culture," he said.

At a proposed 54,000 square feet, about half of the building would be commercial office space that the museum would lease to generate income, Hogg said.

Mexic-Arte Museum already has $5 million in city money from a 2006 voter-approved bond package.

That money had originally been earmarked for a new building on the campus of the Mexican American Cultural Center, but museum leaders decided to remain on Congress Avenue.

Hogg said that the new $30 million project would be paid for with $15 million in city bond money, $6 million in federal New Market Tax Credits for under-served communities, $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration and a $6.5 million capital campaign.

Last week, a city committee cut a list of proposed bond projects in half, from $1.5 billion to $659 million. On Tuesday and Thursday, the committee will hold public meetings to whittle the list further, probably to between $300 million and $500 million.

http://m.statesman.com/statesman/pm_...tguid=OpQ7mrWk