AUSTIN | Hyatt House | 120 FEET | 11 FLOORS | COMPLETE

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by Hill Country

Now the ABJ has an article. This is starting to get some attention now. The article says Cheer Up Charlie's will get $5K per month as an inconvenience payment during construction:

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl...ut-nearby.html

Maybe they can use some of that money towards their mascot - Charlie - a mixed breed dog, who they announced on their Facebook page has nasal cavity cancer. They were talking about needing donations to help raise money for his treatment. I hope they take this situation with the hotel as a good thing and maybe use some of that money for him. I lost my dog Sophie, who meant everything to me, a few years back. She had melanoma in her gum and it eventually spread to her lungs. Most of my time spent on this website while she was alive was with her sitting in my lap.

[corvairkeith]

Texas Monthly ran an article on the changing face of the Red River Entertainment District.

The people who eventually end up staying at Hyatt House might be drawn to a Riverwalk, but it’s hardly a sure thing—and if developments geared to the people who want to visit the current version of Austin keep changing its face, there’s no guarantee that those visitors will still want to come.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/daily-po...-club-district

[Urbannizer]

6/24

No movement since the last update.

[airwx]

According to the Austin Chronicle, protesters were able to keep contractors away from the wall this morning. Council Member Tovo is also getting involved regarding the rock wall and alley issue.

Cheer Ups Cheerless Over Development
Construction of parking garage threatens rock wall
BY KEVIN CURTIN, 9:45AM, WED. JUN. 24

“What we’re trying to do now is facilitate a meeting between all of the parties so that everyone can be in the same room and share information,” Tovo said Monday. “Then we’ll see if we can resolve all the issues.”

That meeting is scheduled for Friday, June 26. Until then, Cheer Ups supporters plan to protest on the property to ward off construction crews who are expected to erect scaffolding on the patio. On Wednesday, June 24, beginning at 5:50am, at least a dozen protesters occupied Cheer Ups parking lot and successfully turned away contractors, who left at 7am, according to organizer Marcus Lawyer.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily...r-development/

[ahealy]

Originally Posted by airwx

According to the Austin Chronicle, protesters were able to keep contractors away from the wall this morning. Council Member Tovo is also getting involved regarding the rock wall and alley issue.


http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily...r-development/

Good! We're gonna be protesting on Friday at 7pm!

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by The ATX

I would have to disagree and say that music tourism is the main reason.

I think what he saying is hotels near the capitol tend to have a high amount of people that stay in them that have dealings with the state government which is true. That doesn't mean that it's the only draw but location does play a role with the type of clientel that stays there.

I do think it's a bad idea for a hotel to be built in the midst of several music venues. Unless they plan on building sound proof walls, I do not see this hotel being a positive for the health and vitality of the Red River District.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by ahealy

Good! We're gonna be protesting on Friday at 7pm!

gonna try to make it!
Glad you are going!

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

gonna try to make it!
Glad you are going!

I guess I missed this in one of the links. What happens at Friday @ 7:00 PM?

[drummer]

Another article on the issue, this time in Community Impact:

http://communityimpact.com/hyatt-con...lies-business/

As I read more into this, I think my original view is a bit off in this particular case (that being that landowners should be able to do what they want, within reason, on their properties). I still agree with that by and large, but in this case it does seem that if something's not changed, a local business would be greatly affected. These local businesses are so much more important to me than big names and brands. If anything else, I think Hyatt, being a large name with lots of money, could re-do their plans for that side of their hotel in a way that benefits everyone - especially local businesses and the greater Red River district. If I were still in Austin (just left a few days ago as my business there wrapped up), I'd try to make it down there on Friday myself.

[The ATX]

Does anyone know what the status of the Hyatt House and Cheer Up Charlie's "disagreement" is?

Here's a photo of the reason for the disagreement from Cheer Up's Facebook page:


https://www.facebook.com/cheerupcharlies

[_Matt]

Looks like it would totally ruin the acoustics.

Keep building up!

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by The ATX

Does anyone know what the status of the Hyatt House and Cheer Up Charlie's "disagreement" is?

Here's a photo of the reason for the disagreement from Cheer Up's Facebook page:


https://www.facebook.com/cheerupcharlies

Sorry, but I'm not sure I get it. I'm not defending the Hyatt development. But it's just scaffolding along the edge of the property. It's not exactly nice to look at, but it doesn't appear to be in the way at all. I don't understand how this really has much affect on CUC's business. I don't understand the big hubbub.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by paul78701

Sorry, but I'm not sure I get it. I'm not defending the Hyatt development. But it's just scaffolding along the edge of the property. It's not exactly nice to look at, but it doesn't appear to be in the way at all. I don't understand how this really has much affect on CUC's business. I don't understand the big hubbub.

Youre right.... you missed what led up to this.
They were going to tear down the wall itself. This is a compromise.
And apparently how much this gets into their space is a compromise as well.
I have been by and it really does kill the vibe. It's not a cool space in a rock walled area now. It's a construction site. Which, and I know this will come as a surpise to some of us on here...... is not so desireable!
So at the end of the day, things arn't as bad as they were going to be.
But be respectful of the fact that it took a fight.
And honeslty more of us need to support the music scene in this town in every way possibe. It's what helped make the city unique and we risk losing that everyday.

[KevinFromTexas]

So they're going to keep the wall? And that was the issue all along? What's the reason for the scaffolding, checking its stability? They should get creative with that space. One idea I'd have is to place some flood lights along or on top of the earthen wall to shine onto the hotel facade. I don't know if the hotel would be up for that, and I'm not even talking about huge lights that would make it visible from afar, but just something to dress up the drab slab some that would raise their spirits.

[_Matt]

Just a few data points:
* Construction were never going to remove the wall.. just rocks that might have loosened during the dig.
* The scaffolding, fence, and landscaping removal is the only thing originally planned. It is to protect from falling rock from above.
* The venue moved to that location in 2014, before that they were located off E. 6th.

[austlar1]

Thanks for clarification, Matt. I think people have been a bit hysterical about this situation. I always understood that the rock wall would remain (unless, of course, it crumbled or toppled down during construction). Cheer Up Charlie's is a relative newcomer at this location, but the site has been a bar for a couple of decades in various iterations. I don't think live music was part of the package until the Club DeVille era The whole notion of a Red River "Cultural" District is fairly recent. For a long time the only real music venue in that immediate area was at a much smaller Stubbs. I don't think the Mohawk (or whatever it used to be called before becoming the Mohawk) was a music venue until sometime post 2000. The heavy metal venue on Red River at 8th behind the Sally did not exist; nor did the club immediately to the south of it. Emo's was actually a 6th St. venue. The bars mid-block on Red River from 6th St on up on to the 7th St. corner were in and out of business with various identities until well past 2000. Only one of those spots regularly featured any live music. There was one other spot on the east side of Red River just north of 7th St. that had live music some nights along with other nights featuring kinky special events for the body modification crowd. I guess 2000 seems like a long, long time ago to most SSP forumers, but for those of us with longer memories, the Red River Cultural District seems like just another bit of real estate branding to give that part of town a more historical lustre. If Waller Creek ever really morphs into a genuine attraction, that whole bit of the planet will quickly assume a River Walk/San Antonio-like flavor that may or may not include space for funky Austin music venues. That is how cities change over time. Austin probably is no exception.

[MichaelB]

from ABJ: June 22.

"The Hyatt’s initial plan early this year was to remove the cliff wall entirely, but representatives of landowner Tracy Rawl fought to prevent that from happening."

Yeah.. and personally I don't think people care enough about the qualities that make Austin... well, Austin.

[_Matt]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

from ABJ: June 22.

"The Hyatt’s initial plan early this year was to remove the cliff wall entirely, but representatives of landowner Tracy Rawl fought to prevent that from happening."

Yeah.. and personally I don't think people care enough about the qualities that make Austin... well, Austin.

The decision to keep the wall was made before the facebook rant. It shows that reasonable property owners can come to terms without "going public" and bringing needless drama to the situation.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by _Matt

The decision to keep the wall was made before the facebook rant. It shows that reasonable property owners can come to terms without "going public" and bringing needless drama to the situation.

I thought the point was that the wall was never going to be torn down?.

But, if we want to contiinue to criticize club owners for speaking up.
OK......
However. Reasonable property owners would not have made all the agreements they made without informing thier tenants. They should have given them sufficient notice that their property was going to be altered and rendered partially unuseable. ( Much less the fact they were idiots to allow the best feature of their own propery to be eliminated.! Dumb asses!)
So as far as I can see. The property owners set up this dynamic.
Too bad for them they messed with people who didn't just take it and have a community backing.
Now let me say. The dear Women at CUC can be hard to back all the time. I have not agreed with some of their tactics in the past.
But this one.... wheather it was them..... or still DeVille or Chances before that... I would have been in their court.

Matter of fact .... I think I need to go there again this week!
Hopefully everyone who comments on this has been to the venue so they have first hand knowledge of the enviroment we are talking about. !

[KevinFromTexas]

So is there any movement on this? I haven't been close enough to tell.

They were issued a tower crane permit on August 18.
https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=11363950

Also, they've released the site plan. The elevations are files 023 through 026.
https://www.austintexas.gov/devrevie...erRSN=11196255


I remember a while back we saw some of the elevations which showed it to be just 99 feet 4 inches above the ground floor (from elevation 521 feet 6 inches). But, if you'll notice the building extends down beyond that point. I measured that distance with a sheet of paper and compared the height to the ones provided on the left, and the distance is 20 feet 6 inches. So that makes the height from the cornice to the southeastern corner of the building 119 feet 10 inches. That makes it a high rise. That makes it 3 feet shorter that the new Main Library.