las manitas

According to the Austin Business Journal, the controversial 1,000+ room Congress Avenue Marriott on the former site of Las Manitas will open in 2015 as scheduled.

The hotel will carry the "Marriott Marquis" brand. According to the Austin Business Journal, "The Austin Marriott Marquis, which will be owned and operated by White Lodging Services Corp., is scheduled to break ground mid-2012 and will offer 110,000 square feet of flexible meeting space.

Earlier today, city council approved a request from White Lodging Services Corp. to waive $4.3 million in fees it would have been required to pay the city in connection with construction of a Marriott hotel on the former site of Las Manitas.

Last week, we reported that 1,000+ room Congress Avenue Marriott was back on-track. The project has been highly unpopular: the architecture is bad, the building lacks clear plans for ground floor retail, and the initial project resulted in the demolition of popular business such as Las Manitas.

The building risks draining the life from a key downtown block connecting the 2nd street district to the convention district and 6th street on the East side of Congress.

Last month, the Austin City Council enacted a zoning change and turned over a public alley in the most effort to lure a major convention hotel to Block 18 --- the Congress Avenue block that used to house Las Manitas and which was at one point going to be taken over by a very large Marriott hotel.

Although Marriott has announced that it will delay the construction of its mammoth hotel on Congress, it has already demolished the storefronts that used to house Las Manitas and the Tesoros Trading Company.

 This block will now sit largely vacant until Marriott feels the economy has recovered enough to proceed with construction.

As early voting in the May 10 Austin city council races gets underway, the main candidates in Place 1 are crowding out the local airwaves.

Uncle Lee Leffingwell, 67, goes after whispers that he’s too old or somehow lacking in the energy required to sit on the dais for one more year before he runs for mayor.

His TV spot features him jogging around town in shorts apparently borrowed from Bill Clinton. BOR has a link here.

The Congress Avenue Marriott -- a 1,000 room hotel complex on 2nd and Congress avenue -- is the most controversial, and one of the least popular downtown projects.

The project is best known for displacing Las Manitas and other local businesses. While the full details of the current plan are not known, the last two versions of the project were criticized for bland institutional architecture and a lack of ground-floor retail on a key block connecting the convention center area to the second street district.

This week’s AusChron has a story about the hunt for SMD’s in Austin.

The usual sides are drawn- Martinez pushing for a change, Cole pushing back because of re-election fears, and Gus Garcia wringing his hands.What struck us was this statement by Sheryl Cole against any sort of geographic representation:

“I’m instantly made aware of what people are most concerned about, whether it’s Las Manitas or the animal shelter.”

There has been lots of talk about gentrification of central neighborhoods such as south and east austin over the last few years.

It seems that central living is in high demand -- prices are going up, developers are moving in, and whole swaths of central austin are being gentrified.

But no area is being gentrified faster than downtown where warehouses, parking lots, and office buildings are being replaced by large condo projects.