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The W Austin Hotel & Residences project downtown, which is the planned future home for Austin City Limits tapings, needs new financing. Corus Bank was signed up to provide a $165 million construction loan, but has been hit hard by the economic downturn and assigned the loan to a subsidiary of the developer, Stratus Properties, in exchange for a $250,000 reduction in the outstanding balance.
According to Stratus, they are "aggressively pursuing other options for financing the future construction costs," including additional equity contributions by the current developers, a new loan, new equity partners, or a combination. If they can't come up with the money, construction may be delayed.
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If they can't come up with the money, construction may be delayed.
Permanently, I hope. Keep ACL at KLRU studios.
Greed this big will not be stopped, but I hope it gets delayed for a long time. ACL sold it's soul to become a marketing gimick for overpriced condos.
Absolutely not. You would wish for another eyesore to sit downtown for years, half-finished? No way. Finish the damn job, people. And hey City Council - how's about you stop giving away tax breaks and incentives and forcing us residents to pay for these half-cocked development ideas? Why don't you start ensuring that the developers have the funding in place with assurances, before you let them break ground?
The only giveaways for development in this area are the massive subsidies given to suburban homeowners. Urban developments like the W pay something like $8 in taxes for every $1 they cost in city services.
Thanks for the correction, mdahmus -- it's good to know that the W will be contributing back to the city once it's completed.
Oh and for the gleef*cks in general, financing is a problem all around - your beloved suburban sprawl ain't doing so well on that accord lately either, what with the Lake Travis foreclosure; the Cedar Park / Leander "TOD" debacles; the Galleria; etc.
The empty building is less of an eyesore than the douchebags that populate it. I don't wanna seem them wearing $250 jeans with ACL VIP passes around their neck and talking about how the beautiful people like themself all come to the W lobby bar. Let's go spend $50 on small tacos and chips & salsa at La Condessa!
Hey whoooo! Well said! Austin would be so much better if we could somehow keep all these douchebags out. No one around here wants a city with a rich socioeconomic environment. Let's say "no thanks" to the good shopping, excellent cuisine, a vibrant tourism industry, and bountiful arts and entertainment that accompanies urban growth, especially if it means we have to live with these awful people who make more money than we do.
I mean, what kind of a-hole would want to spend $50 on dinner? Or buy $250 jeans? You know, if Levi's and Juan In A Million are good enough for me and you then they're good enough for everyone. These jerks look down their noses at our favorite restaurants. And since they're all about appearances, they're perfectly content to eat garbage as long as it's expensive! What a bunch of rubes.
God, they're so pretentious. So, let's send 'em back to NYC, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Washington DC, Phoenix and Miami! You know what we should do? We should trumpet the superiority of Austin natives as loudly as we can. That's the only way they'll know they aren't welcome in our town! I know we can keep our town from changing if we work together. Don't give up! Fight the good fight, brother!
Yeah, no more condos! People here don't need jobs, we don't need a road to affordable housing, why should the city make all kinds of money from tourism? Why can't we go back to the old Austin where we had bland car dealerships at 5th and Lamar and nothing but grassy fields from Lamar to downtown. LONG LIVE SPRAWL AND MEDIOCRITY!
I'm with you whoooo, I don't want to live in a prosperous and vibrant city with diversity and economic growth and low unemployment. I just wish we could all wait tables and only get tips on $20 checks, that would be awesome!
Oh yeah and most importantly, if it weren't for all these condos we'd all be much more tolerant like we used to be. They have ruined our lives and changed our morals. Whoooo, do you remember when we were accepting of everyone that was just like us?
I live downtown & I wear levis. I even gave up the option to have a car because it simply isn't needed. Get to know the REAL inhabitants of an area before you assign harsh generalizations to all of us.
I am very happy to see affluent people stack themselves in downtown filing cabinets. The fewer people with $300k mortgage approval letters trolling my neighborhood, the fewer McMansion developers will be motivated to scrape Hyde Park homes.
Seth
Someone trolling your neighborhood with a $300K mortgage approval letter is going to be sorely disappointed in their options.
Ha, $300k gets you a vacant lot in Hyde Park.