Las Manitas owners strike deal with Marriott developers
Agreement ends stalemate over Congress Avenue hotel.
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By Sarah Coppola
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The owners of Las Manitas restaurant have signed an agreement that will resolve a stalemate and allow a $250 million Marriott hotel complex to be built downtown.
Lidia and Cynthia Perez will allow the landowners and future developers of 211 Congress Ave. to access and build over an alley behind that block, according to documents filed with the Travis County clerk's office.
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The City of Austin owns the alley, but the Perez sisters have access rights to the alley because they own a building on the same block: 227 Congress Ave. The hotel developer, White Lodging Services Corp., wants to build over part of the alley and needed the sisters' permission to do so.
The Marriott hotel project will displace Las Manitas at its current location, 211 Congress Ave.
Earlier this year, the city offered the Perez sisters a $750,000 forgivable loan to renovate and move into the building they own up the block. But the idea sparked a public outcry and the sisters decided in August not to sign the loan, saying they didn't like the loan terms.
The sisters had used the alley access issue as a bargaining chip of sorts in their negotiations with the landowner of 211 Congress Ave., the Finley Company, and White Lodging. The developer previously offered the sisters money to grant permission to use the alley, but the sisters did not accept and the negotiations broke down last fall, prompting city officials to step in with a loan offer.
It's not clear whether or how much White Lodging has paid the sisters to grant the alley access. The sisters' lawyer, Amon Burton, referred calls to Elyse Yates, the sisters' media representative.
Yates said the sisters won't say how much, if anything, the sisters have been paid. She said she did not know the sisters' plans for the restaurant.
Finley and Richard Suttle, an Austin lawyer who has been representing White Lodging, have not returned calls today.
The one other property owner on the block, Mary Ogden, also must sign off on Finley and White Lodging's use of the alley. Odgen owns 217 Congress Ave., site of the Copa Bar & Grill.
Odgen's lawyer, Harry Whittington, said Ogden is willing to allow the alley use and plans to sign an agreement with the landowner and developer soon.
White Lodging wants to build over the alley directly behind 211 Congress Ave., but not behind Ogden's or the Perez sisters' properties. In the agreement, the Perez sisters allow use of the alley for trash pickups and deliveries, and also as a construction staging area as the hotel is being built.
scoppola@statesman.com; 912-2939
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