To build the new tallest tower in Austin, you’ve got to break a few eggs — or, in this case, demolish a completely unremarkable hotel. In other words, the Extended Stay America now occupying the famously “cursed” former home of the late Alamo Hotel at the northwest corner of West Sixth and Guadalupe Streets is not long for this world, with recent city documents pointing to its demolition sometime next month.
Once the site’s cleared, groundbreaking can begin for the 6 X Guadalupe mixed-use tower by developers Lincoln Property Company and Kairoi Residential — Lincoln can’t confirm to us exactly when the old hotel’s getting knocked down, but permit filings related to street closures around the site during the demolition describe work starting on September 3 and lasting until October 15. It may also interest you that the Extended Stay America hotel isn’t taking reservations at this location after the end of August — that seems as good a sign as any that we’re about to get some action here.
We’ve seen delays on a lot of high-profile demolitions in the downtown area for projects like this before, meaning these dates aren’t necessarily firm — heck, the city hasn’t even approved the permit yet — but any kind of progress on 6 X Guadalupe after about a year of very few updates to report is good news for those of us who would like to see this record-setting 66-story, 848-foot residential and office tower make it past the drawing board downtown.
Any tower project would likely be an improvement over the hotel currently at the site, which we’ve mentioned before is so boring in its design that your brain refuses to let you notice it on your travels through downtown unless you’re actually staying there. The hotel, just like the vacant post office across the street, attracted some local controversy over the sheer depth of its blandness when it was developed in the 1990s — though its developers agreed to move the building up to the corner of West Sixth and Guadalupe Streets instead of sticking it right in the middle of its huge parking lot, the outcry for ground-floor retail or any other effort to make the project look like it belonged downtown instead of next to a highway somewhere went unanswered:
Just like the post office behind it, the Extended Stay America arguably made Austin a better place through its extreme badness, creating local demand for the city to take action by drafting urban design guidelines for buildings in the downtown area. That’s great news for us, and we thank the hotel for the unique service it provided — but now, roughly two decades later, it’s time to knock it down. We’ll keep y’all posted.
Latest Downtown Austin Condos For Sale
-
$315,000
1800 Lavaca ST #A707
Austin, TX -
$1,225,000
202 Nueces ST #1603
Austin, TX -
$1,739,000
70 Rainey ST #1306
Austin, TX -
$1,500,000
301 West Ave #1706
Austin, TX -
$1,500,000
555 E 5th ST #2901
Austin, TX -
$2,500,000
40 N Interstate 35 Highway #PA1
Austin, TX -
$995,000
48 East Ave #1811
Austin, TX -
$1,095,000
54 Rainey ST #802
Austin, TX -
$2,240,000
MLS # 7048577
Austin, TX -
$499,000
210 Lee Barton DR #321
Austin, TX -
$870,000
501 West Ave #802
Austin, TX -
$649,000
360 Nueces ST #2401
Austin, TX -
$650,000
48 E East Ave #3203
Austin, TX -
$595,000
48 East Ave #3005
Austin, TX -
$1,349,000
70 Rainey ST #1402
Austin, TX
-
Lot Size388 sqft
Home Size880 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
Lot Size57 sqft
Home Size941 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
Lot Size166 sqft
Home Size1,743 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths3 Baths
-
Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,490 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
Lot Size175 sqft
Home Size1,755 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2.5 Baths
-
Lot Size4,879 sqft
Home Size6,260 sqft
Beds4 Beds
Baths4.5 Baths
-
Lot Size88 sqft
Home Size1,036 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths1.5 Baths
-
Lot Size393 sqft
Home Size1,557 sqft
Beds3 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
Lot Size131 sqft
Home Size1,918 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
-
Lot Size349 sqft
Home Size862 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
Lot Size53 sqft
Home Size846 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
Lot Size88 sqft
Home Size801 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
Lot SizeN/A
Home Size641 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
Lot Size61 sqft
Home Size706 sqft
Beds1 Bed
Baths1 Bath
-
Lot SizeN/A
Home Size1,154 sqft
Beds2 Beds
Baths2 Baths
Leave a Reply