Austin council to vote on new $3.4M boathouse and who will run it

[JAM]

City has yet to decide who will run facility on north shore of Lady Bird Lake.

By Marty Toohey

American-Statesman STAFF

Updated: 5:16 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010


The Austin City Council will consider approving a $3.4 million boathouse on the north shore of Lady Bird Lake at its meeting today. The two-story, 10,800-square-foot building would replace an older, smaller boathouse.

The new boathouse would serve rowers, kayakers, canoers and others and include boat storage, locker rooms, an observation deck and offices for the Austin parks department. It would be located along the hike-and-bike trail near the downtown Four Seasons Hotel.

The project is part of a larger effort to beautify Waller Creek. The creek empties into Lady Bird Lake close to the existing boathouse. The new boathouse would be set farther back from the lake to accommodate a lagoon at the mouth of the creek. The renovation of Waller Creek is meant to control flooding and spur development in the southeastern part of downtown.

"This will be one of the first visible signs of the (Waller Creek) project," said Marty Stump , the city's park development coordinator. "So much of it will be underground, and this will give the public some signs of progress."

The new boathouse should be finished by December 2012 , Stump said. The city has yet to decide who would run the facility. The nonprofit Austin Rowing Club, which has operated the existing boathouse for more than two decades, has submitted a bid to run the new boathouse, as has the Texas Rowing Center, a business that operates on the shore behind Austin High School.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...4m-932703.html

[austin242]

Just a side thought here, but I always thought that they should turn the Pump station at seaholm into a boathouse. What are they doing with it anyway?

[JAM]

Originally Posted by austin242

Just a side thought here, but I always thought that they should turn the Pump station at seaholm into a boathouse. What are they doing with it anyway?

Don't recall ever hearing any plans?

[JAM]

It's curious, how no one is up in arms about a $3.4 project that serves just a few people (maybe 1000 per week) from the hours of 5-9 during the summer, and very sporadically during the rest of the year.....


While a 13M boardwalk to complete the trail has the whole city up in arms. This project would serve easily 30,000 people, 7am-9pm every day of the year.

Lets do the quick math:

Boat house:

Operational 5 hours day, 5 days a week - 25 hours a week for 52 weeks= 1300 hours per year. This is being very generous. 1300*1000 = 1.3M person hours.

3.4M/1.3M = $2.62 per person hour

vs

Boardwalk:

Operations 14 hrs per day, 7 days a week for 52 weeks = 5096 hours per year * 30K people = 153M person hours.

13M/153M = .09 per person hour

The boat house is 2.62/.09 = 29 times more expensive.........

[NAL]

Yes, but ...

The city will get "concession fees" from whomever is chosen to run the boathouse, as noted in the linked article. The Austin Rowing Club may have to raise its member's fees to pay the concession, which seems fair for their limited use of city property.

[SecretAgentMan]

I think the controversy comes from using a transportation bond to pay for an expensive facility that people won't get to drive their cars on. The boathouse will be paid for by the Waller Creek TIF, which is money that would not exist if not for the Waller Creek Tunnel. Construction of the tunnel is what necessitates demolition of the existing boathouse, so it is only fair.

[Armybrat]

I thought the city was facing a shortfall?

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/top_s...20100608-ktbcw

Are property taxes going to increase?

[KevinFromTexas]

The boardwalk will be used for transportation. I don't know how many times I've ridden the hike & bike trail to avoid the summer heat instead of taking the streets. It's nice too to use it to avoid traffic. It's sort of like walking the Riverwalk in San Antonio to be away from cars instead of using the street. Sometimes it's nice to avoid them.

[JAM]

Originally Posted by Armybrat

I thought the city was facing a shortfall?

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/top_s...20100608-ktbcw

Are property taxes going to increase?

Of course. They already have. The Waller Creek TIF place holder is already showing up on our tax bills. School tax rates are going up everywhere. Business tax rates are also going up.

[JAM]

Originally Posted by SecretAgentMan

I think the controversy comes from using a transportation bond to pay for an expensive facility that people won't get to drive their cars on. The boathouse will be paid for by the Waller Creek TIF, which is money that would not exist if not for the Waller Creek Tunnel. Construction of the tunnel is what necessitates demolition of the existing boathouse, so it is only fair.

Or, more accurately, the money wouldn't exist w/o the TIF. I wouldn't say 3.4M structure is exactly an even trade-off for what is there now. It looks like those structures could be rebuilt for less than 1M. The original estimates were 1.7M, so its now doubled.

Originally Posted by NAL

Yes, but ... The city will get "concession fees" from whomever is chosen to run the boathouse, as noted in the linked article. The Austin Rowing Club may have to raise its member's fees to pay the concession, which seems fair for their limited use of city property.

I was curious exactly what the concession fees were, and ran across some other info. According to the Statesman, the club currently has 400 members, so I was WAY off on the WAG above. If they gross 400K per year, then concession fees could be 10%??? 40K per year???? Interest on 3.4M is 14K per month, or over 168K per year, so the concession fees are not going to pay for that.

http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...103rowing.html

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/parks/concessions.htm

The numbers just don't add up, when you compare it to the boardwalk.

I'm not super crazy about what looks to be a view blocking design, unless they welcome the public to sit on the upper deck.

Current structure:


[New rendering]

[JAM]

[Jdawgboy]

People need to get it through their head that walking on their own feet is a means of transportation. Im tired of this car centric society where if its not more highways, its bigger roads ect...

[JAM]

A rowing club that for decades has run a city boathouse on Lady Bird Lake might operate the new $3.4 million boathouse that's replacing it, even though the group ranked second in the contract bidding process.

Austin's parks board voted 4-2 this week to urge the City Council not to hire the rowing club, saying the nonprofit doesn't have the experience or financial strength to manage the new boathouse and offer a greater array of services.

"They do not have a viable business plan or a clear pro forma that indicates they can run a profitable business from this new, $3.4 million facility," parks board member Hill Abell said Wednesday .

The new boathouse is under construction on the lake's north shore, near the Four Seasons hotel. It is nearly complete and will open this month or next .

Texas Rowing Center , a business that runs a city boathouse near Austin High School, offered to pay the city $1.5 million over seven years, $300,000 more than the club. Partly for that reason, the center scored higher during the bidding process: 113.5 out of a possible 125 points, compared with the club's 106.4 points.

But the rowing center was disqualified last year for a lobbying violation.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...n-2208337.html

[Slappy]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

People need to get it through their head that walking on their own feet is a means of transportation. Im tired of this car centric society where if its not more highways, its bigger roads ect...

Damn Straight!

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by Slappy

Damn Straight!

Im glad you agree, I would rather travel on foot through the trails than to deal with the traffic any day, you can cross from West Austin to East Austin within an hours time and you can connect to trails that go through the West End along Shoal creek, as well as Waller creek though I would rather wait till they are done with the tunnel and fix the area up first. You can walk from Downtown all the way out to the Southwest part of the city on foot now. Technically you can walk from Downtown to Barton Creek Mall on foot though you would need to deal with the Mopac/360 intersection and a quarter mile stretch of road to get there. I think if they created paths and better pedestrian crossings like a bridge that could be done.

[KevinFromTexas]

It's mighty close to the trail. Look both ways before stepping off those stairs!




Bike racks!


Deck area.

[nixcity]

Looks nice but wasnt the main reason for doing this to make it bigger??? It certainly doesnt appear to be much larger than what was there before, is sure does look better though!