And...apparently they have some competition. A 2nd convention center hotel has been announced a few blocks away. Basically it'll be a race between the two developers to see who can get the farthest along so they can secure the fee waivers. The City is also offering to kick in 500K for utility upgrades in a shared cost with the developer.
Of course, it would be nice if we could have two new 1,000+ room hotels.
There's no mention of height for this 2nd hotel, but it'll probably be in the area of 30 floors also since both are the same size and working with the same size blocks.
http://www.statesman.com/business/se...n-1558983.html
Quote:
Second developer said to be working on downtown convention hotel plan
By Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 10:16 p.m. Thursday, June 23, 2011
Published: 9:39 p.m. Thursday, June 23, 2011
Austin developers Perry Lorenz and Robert Knight say they have a prospective developer who wants to build a second convention hotel on land they own at the northeast corner of Red River and Cesar Chavez streets east of the Austin Convention Center.
The hotel would have more than 1,000 rooms and require no city subsidies, Lorenz said Thursday.
Lorenz said he had met recently with most Austin City Council members about the new project — a potential rival to a proposed 1,003-room high-rise Marriott Marquis hotel on Congress Avenue.
City Council Member Bill Spelman said the emergence of a second potential project led the council on Thursday to postpone until next week a vote on $4.3 million in fee waivers for White Lodging Services Inc., which would develop the Marriott.
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