Austin | Waterloo Park Hotel (12th & Red River) | 335 FT | 27 FLRS | Demo

[Urbannizer]

Austin Lifestyle Hotel Development

GMR created the Austin Lifestyle Hotel Project to develop a hotel in Austin, Texas. Austin is a very attractive hospitality market with multiple guest drivers: university, tourism, government, and business. GMR has identified a downtown location for a +250 room, +$100 million budget, upper-upscale lifestyle hotel.

GMR is an investor, the developer, and owner of the project.

http://www.gmr-llc.com/austin-lifest...-austin-hotel/

Austin Lifestyle Hotel Project signed a 99-year lease to build its boutique lifestyle hotel in Austin Texas.

“The location is ideal. It is in the middle of the State Capital, University of Texas, 6th street entertainment area, and I-20,” said Craig Bull, Managing Director GMR, LLC.

Brett Norwich, Chief Executive Officer GMR, LLC added,”the site will accommodate a +250 room hotel with multiple food and beverage venues. We could not be happier.”

GMR is the developer and a principal in the project.

[The ATX]

This is the Waterloo Park Tower. Nice find.

[Urbannizer]

Originally Posted by The ATX

This is the Waterloo Park Tower. Nice find.

The Bowie came to mind looking at the second rendering, vaguely looks like that tower. Hope this hotel eventually leads to something being developed on the SE corner.

[We vs us]

This popped up in my newsfeed today, and made me immediately think of the Waterloo Hotel:

"Virgin Hotels eyes Austin for its next swanky location

A luxury hotel brand launched by Sir Richard Branson — the billionaire brainchild behind the Virgin empire of ventures in travel, entertainment, communications, and retail — might be landing in Austin.

Virgin Hotels has an opened property in Chicago and has properties in the pipeline for Dallas; Nashville, Tennessee; Palm Springs, California; and New York. Beyond that, Austin sits on Virgin Hotels’ short list of expansion targets along with Bogota, Colombia; Boston; London; Los Angeles; Madrid; Miami; Paris; San Francisco; Sao Paulo; Seattle; and Washington, according to company press releases and marketing materials.

In Austin and other wish-list markets, Virgin Hotels says it’s looking at ground-up developments, acquisitions of existing properties, partnerships with current owners, and third-party management deals."

Weird -- there's no other news on the web about an Austin location, and the blog post from Culturemap is really just a teaser. There's no real info at all. So . . . why run it?


http://austin.culturemap.com/news/tr...stin-location/

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by We vs us

This popped up in my newsfeed today, and made me immediately think of the Waterloo Hotel:

"Virgin Hotels eyes Austin for its next swanky location

A luxury hotel brand launched by Sir Richard Branson — the billionaire brainchild behind the Virgin empire of ventures in travel, entertainment, communications, and retail — might be landing in Austin.

Virgin Hotels has an opened property in Chicago and has properties in the pipeline for Dallas; Nashville, Tennessee; Palm Springs, California; and New York. Beyond that, Austin sits on Virgin Hotels’ short list of expansion targets along with Bogota, Colombia; Boston; London; Los Angeles; Madrid; Miami; Paris; San Francisco; Sao Paulo; Seattle; and Washington, according to company press releases and marketing materials.

In Austin and other wish-list markets, Virgin Hotels says it’s looking at ground-up developments, acquisitions of existing properties, partnerships with current owners, and third-party management deals."

Weird -- there's no other news on the web about an Austin location, and the blog post from Culturemap is really just a teaser. There's no real info at all. So . . . why run it?


http://austin.culturemap.com/news/tr...stin-location/

Virgin has had those words (or words similar) on their LinkedIn page for at least two years I believe.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by The ATX

Virgin has had those words (or words similar) on their LinkedIn page for at least two years I believe.

I believe it. I surfed it and it looks like a pretty generic statement. It essentially reads like a list of hip/essential American travel destinations, plus Bogota. I still want to know why it deserves a mention out of the blue.

[Tech House]

Originally Posted by We vs us

I still want to know why it deserves a mention out of the blue.

It's Culturemap, and they're desperate. We don't have a lot of flashy, trendy news at the moment, so it must be hard for their writers to come up with anything worth posting. Which gives me an idea. Want to punk Culturemap with me?

[The ATX]

Oh lord. This thread will be interesting. I had to double check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April Fool's Day. Trump Hotels and a Texas developer (Global Management Resources) are planning a 33-story tower with 255 hotel rooms and 22 condos. It will be somewhere near 6th St. This was just posted in the Wall Street Journal:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-br...ram-1476911830

[The ATX]

Some quick Googling confirms that Global Management Resources is also the developer of the proposed Waterloo Park Tower hotel. If these are confirmed to be the same project, we can merge the threads.

[LoneStarMike]

The Wall Street Journal article is behind a paywall. For those of you who are not WSJ subscribers (like me) you can google the exact title of the story "Trump-Branded Project Developer in Austin Seeks to Tap Immigrant Visa Program" and when the search results page page comes up, you can click on the link from the search results page.

If that doesn't work, you can try to access the article here (click on the link to the right of the title.)

The article does make it sound like it's at the site of the Waterloo Park Hotel. which is supposed to be at 12th & Red River. It says:

The hotel will have 255 rooms and 22 condominium units and an outdoor rooftop terrace. It is a five-minute walk to Austin’s 6th Street entertainment district. Trump Hotels will manage the property, according to documents on the center’s website.

[The ATX]

I happened upon the article when it was fresh; it went behind the paywall right after I read it.
One other detail from the article is that the developers are seeking Chinese partners to finance it.

[lzppjb]

Sweeeeeet. Say what you will about Trump, but he's got some nice hotels. Maybe he saw how vibrant downtown was when he visited a few weeks ago and wanted in. haha

A ~400' tower in that location would be nice. It would start pulling the skyline northward.

[The ATX]

Since we lost our lone gold tower several (20 maybe?) years back, I hope it looks like Trump Vegas!


http://www.ibew.org/media-center/Art...ily/1607/Trump


NOT REALLY. IN NO WAY DO I HOPE IT LOOKS LIKE THAT.

[lzppjb]

lol I was about to question your sanity.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by The ATX

One other detail from the article is that the developers are seeking Chinese partners to finance it.

Yeah - the program is the EB-5 program. If you're a foreigner and you invest at least $500,000 in a U.S. business, you get a green card. According to the WSJ article the program started in 1990, but in 2008 developers started using this program because it's a way for them to get low-cost loans for their developments.

Because many foreign investors are motivated primarily by the prospect of a green card—not the financial investment—they tend to accept below-market interest rates, meaning big savings for developers. A large majority of those investors in recent years have hailed from China, typically accounting for more than 80% of EB-5 visas.

The article also noted

The program is due to expire in December, and lawmakers are clashing over proposed changes.

I noticed in the Waterloo Park Hotel thread, it was supposed to be a 250 room hotel and was slated to be 24 stories. I guess the addition of the 22 condos is what bumped it up to 33 stories.

These were the only two renderings ever found for the project (from the other thread)

[We vs us]

Wow. That's just amazing. Of all the luxury/lifestyle/boutique brands -- all of whom, you have to believe, are clamoring to get into Austin -- GMR is going to go with Trump?

That said, his kids just debuted their new brand Scion (under the Trump Hotels umbrella), and it looks like a pretty solid fit for Austin. Kind of a coked-up Kimpton vibe.

http://m.hotelbusiness.com/Brands/HB...ts-Scion/55209

[AustinGoesVertical]

I thought this thread was a practical joke considering the timing after the debate. I will say that before the election cycle, I was fond of Trump Towers. The one in Chicago is one of my favorite buildings and Trump SoHo in NYC is one I make sure to walk around in every time I'm there. Just a very cool building. There is a stigma around Trump Towere these days, and I don't think I'd ever stay in one even if I ever have the financial means. Strange how someone who makes their dough by licensing their brand to developers has done some serious damage to that inherent brand.

[JACKinBeantown]

This is gonna keep us in suspense.

[austlar1]

Trump does not own most of the hotels that bear his name. He licenses his name to owners and often ends up operating the hotel through his hotel management company. Highly unlikely that Trump or Trump children will finance and build a hotel property in Austin. Given recent developments it also seems unlikely that there will be a hotel in Austin bearing the Trump brand which is has become somewhat toxic in today's hotel marketplace. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifer.../#2cacfdf7414f

[The ATX]

The NY Times has the story. (What's up local media? This would make for a classic Statesman trolling headline: Trump Tower Coming to Austin!) It's branded as a "Mirabeau Trump Hotel." The article confirms that it is the Waterloo Park Tower project.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/bu...otel.html?_r=0