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Downtown Development
September 25, 2009
Second Street district to get a public service station
Downtown Austin’s Second Street shopping and entertainment district will get a public safety station in November.
The station will be on the ground floor of the AMLI on 2nd apartment complex, which is between Guadalupe and San Antonio streets.
AMLI is providing the space rent-free to the city for five years, according to a release from the company.
The station will be staffed by Austin-Travis County EMS workers, with one ambulance. Austin police also will be able to use the station to file reports.
Several Austin companies are donating materials or services to help build the station. They include Structura Inc., a general contractor; Austin Glass; Cool Services Inc.; Solomon Electrical Contracting and the Jackson Walker law firm.
“This station, at this time, is the result of creative collaboration among many people and organizations committed to addressing a community need for first responders downtown,” said Taylor Bowen, senior vice president of AMLI.
AMLI Resdidential owns two apartment buildings in the Second Street District — the one where the station will be and AMLI Downtown, on Second Street between Colorado and Lavaca streets.
AMLI Manaqement Co. handles leasing for retail space in the Second Street district.
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October 9, 2008
El Sol y La Luna moving to East Sixth Street
A SoCo institution is moving downtown.
El Sol Y La Luna will leave its 13-year home on South Congress Avenue for a new location at Red River and Sixth Street, the restaurant’s longtime owners and city officials will announce at a joint press conference today.
The restaurant will move into a space at Sixth and Red River.
“Sixth Street won’t know what hit them,” said an energetic Nilda de la Llata, who is co-owner of El Sol, during a press conference in front of her new storefront Thursday at Red River and Sixth Street.
The restaurant has been a popular SoCo hangout. It wasn’t immediately clear what will replace it. It is housed in the Austin Motel.
The move marks yet another milestone in the city’s overall plans towards transforming Sixth Street from a night life center into a bustling downtown business district during the day, de la Llata and city officials said.
The news also marks the move of yet another iconic restaurant from its longtime Central Austin digs as new projects squeeze out longtime tenants, such as Las Manitas on Congress Avenue, which closed its doors last month to move to a new site a few doors down.
In El Sol’s case, however, higher rent or another project wasn’t part of the decision to move, de la Llata said.
“We have outgrown our space,” she said.
The new site will nearly double the restaurant’s footprint to 5,000 square feet, expand seating from 110 to about 150 and leave enough room for a bigger kitchen working off an expanded menu, a dance floor and a stage for an expanded focus on music.
De la Llata said she expects to host expanded hours and musical-themed evenings, such as mariachi night.
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September 3, 2008
Las Manitas closes its doors -- is a new one coming?
Las Manitas, the popular Tex-Mex restaurant that has been a Congress Avenue landmark for more than 25 years, has closed its doors.
But workers have moved the 20-foot counter and some other fixtures to a building at the corner of Congress and Third Street that is owned by Cynthia and Lidia Perez, who owned Las Manitas. And some of them said the sisters planned to reopen there.
“There will be extensive remodeling to make it look like the old one. These people don’t quit,” said Bob Schroeder, who was working at the new location.
Cynthia Perez said they were not ready to comment on their plans. “It’s about the history,” she said through the window at La Pena, the art gallery they own and the apparent new home of Las Manitas’ successor.
A sign on the front door of the restaurant read, “Here was fought the battle for Austin’s soul. Austin lost.”
Another sign on the back patio gate said: Closed forever.”
The Perez sisters had been under an Aug. 31 deadline to close down. The owner of the building is selling it to make way for c a 1,000-room Marriott convention hotel.
The land owner, Tim FInley, has applied for demolition permits for the restaurant and adjacent buildings. Construction on the hotel is expected to start next year.
The closing ends the nearly 2-year saga which turned into a citywide debate over development versus protecting longtime locally owned businesses downtown.
Amid a wave of protest from Las Manitas’ many fans, the City Council last year approved a $750,000 forgivable loan for the sisters to renovate the other building so the restaurant could stay in business.
The sisters later rejected the loan, saying it had too many conditions.
Then Finley offered the sisters a low-interest loan so they could move.
The Tesoros folk art store next door has already moved to South Congress. The Escuelita del Alma day care soon will move to a new site in East Austin.
Manuel Zala, manager of Copa Bar & Grill on the same block, said the businesses will be missed, and that that section of Congress will never look the same.
“A lot of people will miss the atmosphere and miss the old strip, and especially the way the Manitas restaurant and Tosoros and Escuelita look.”
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December 21, 2006
City to create new Congress Avenue retail fund, spurred by Las Manitas debate
A news release from Mayor Will Wynn and some Austin City Council Members Media Release
Ongoing efforts to create a vibrant downtown got a shot in the arm Thursday with the announcement of a tool to draw new retail and help retain existing businesses that enhance Austin’s unique urban fabric along Congress Avenue.
Austin Mayor Will Wynn, Mayor Pro Tem Betty Dunkerly and Councilmember Mike Martinez announced plans to create the Congress Avenue Retail Retention and Enhancement Fund.
The fund will complement the Downtown Austin Retail Development Strategy – a partnership between the City and the Downtown Austin Alliance begun in 2005 to strengthen existing retail and bring new development downtown.
Phase I of the initiative established a framework for promoting downtown retail. Phase II provides recommendations for Congress Avenue specifically and also involved hiring a Retail Coordinator to begin recruiting new retailers to Congress.
The Congress Avenue Retail Retention and Enhancement Fund will complement Phase II by generating revenue for targeted programs and incentives to ensure a diverse, sustainable mix of retail along Austin’s signature corridor.
“The remarkable success we’ve had on 2nd Street is due to the fact that we developed a strategy, funded it and stuck to it. Now it’s time for us to make judicious, strategic investments in Congress Avenue,” Wynn said.
“The inspiration for this program is, of course, the situation regarding the proposed Marriott development on the 200 block of Congress and the desire to preserve Las Manitas, a mainstay of Congress Avenue,” Wynn said.
The program will be funded by designating a portion of certain developer fees paid to the City from new projects along Congress Avenue for things such as temporary use of parking lanes, alley vacations and air rights. Recent Congress Avenue projects had barricade fees alone of more than $500,000.
“These fees are compensation to the City for use of its resources, but the associated activities don’t actually cost anything in terms of general fund expenses,” Dunkerly said. “So, by utilizing these fees we can enhance our tax base and create an exceptional downtown without any additional cost to the tax payer.”
Grants from the fund will be administered based on scored criteria and will be approved by the Council before being disbursed. Wynn, Dunkerly and Martinez will sponsor a City Council resolution in January directing the City Manager to develop program details.
“The announcement of this program ties together the economic development and preservation efforts we’ve been working toward for years,” Martinez said. “This new policy direction sends a message that Austin welcomes growth downtown while maintaining a commitment to preserving the diversity and character of Austin along Congress Avenue. I look forward to finding avenues that incorporate minority and women-owned businesses as a strategic part of this program as well, while growing the retail presence along Congress Avenue.”
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