New downtown Austin hotel tower planned at Fifth and Trinity – TOWERS
Image: Aaron Anderer/Flickr Creative Commons
Approval of demolition requests for two buildings adjacent to downtown Austin late last month by the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission will clear the southwest corner of Fifth East and Trinity Streets for a new hotel tower project, according to development permits filed earlier this week. Occupying a quarter of a city block, the structures adjacent to 307 and 311 East Fifth Street both date back to the 1920s, with the HLC only issuing their demolition permits after staff determined that neither property contained enough historic value to be preserved. Both properties are owned by a series LLC related to local investors Finley Company.
Property 311, which recently hosted an event venue trinity hall, is already closed — but fans of the downtown restaurant Russian house now occupying site 307 will be disappointed to see its closure and eventual demolition if the development plan goes ahead. (For what it’s worth, the current location of the legendary blues club at Anthony’s, next to Russian House on the west side and also owned by the Finley company, does not appear to be involved in these plans.)
Demolition permits filed for these properties late last year also indicate the involvement of a hotel management company white cottage, which has already worked with Finley Company to develop three other major hotels on its local downtown properties – the JW Marriott at East Second Street and Congress Avenue; the double mark Altitude / Element hotel at East Seventh Street and Congress Avenue; and the Otis / AC hotel located at East MLK Jr. and San Antonio streets on West Campus.
A current view of the East Fifth and Trinity corner should be cleared and redeveloped, with the good old Austin condos rising in the background. Image: City of Austin
According to this week’s permit for the site, the new development at this corner contains a Hotel 260 keys and one Restaurant area of 3,000 square feet, without mention of other amenities or overall height. Considering that the proximity Westin Austin Downtown also occupies a quarter-block area and contains 366 rooms in a simple 22-story building, it appears that what is currently planned here will not be very large – but other additional features or uses could potentially be later announced because the site completely lacks the constraints on density by Capitol View Corridors does not make a smaller building seem like the highest and best use of that land. Anyway, go eat at Russian House now.