The press release is made of cheese… How best to follow up a City Council meeting that saw unanimous action to ease the development of affordable housing? If you’ve got the big office on the second floor at City Hall, the answer is getting farcical and sending the recipe for Kerbey Lane Cafe queso, along […]
Austin Convention Center
This city department operates the downtown convention center and associated events.
Posted inAustin
UT study at center of debate on tourism, hotel tax and expansion proposal
A forthcoming report from a group of University of Texas architectural students may be the next significant piece of research shaping the ongoing debate over how the city uses its Hotel Occupancy Tax funds. That study – commissioned last year for the UT School of Architecture’s Center for Sustainable Development – was directed to look […]
Posted inAustin
Debate over convention center, hotel tax funds spreads to Music Commission
A recently created music activism group has been thrown into the fray of the debate – largely playing out in meetings of the new Tourism Commission – over how to spend money the city generates through its roughly $100 million portion of the Hotel Occupancy Tax, and the larger issue of possibly expanding the Austin […]
Posted inAustin
Convention center fate looms as Tourism Commission scrutinizes Visit Austin budgets
The most recent meeting of the city’s still-new Tourism Commission followed what could become a regular dynamic for the group: detailed “in the weeds” parsing of budgets and policies related to Austin’s tourism industry, with the proposed expansion of the Austin Convention Center looming over everything. Monday’s meeting bore that out during an hour-plus analysis […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Council rejects first aid services contract
During Tuesday’s work session, City Council members expressed enough objections to a contract to hire an outside firm to provide medical services at the Austin Convention Center that city staff agreed to remove the item from today’s agenda. Council members Delia Garza, Leslie Pool, Jimmy Flannigan and Ora Houston each weighed in on the proposed […]
Posted inCity Council
Council commissions study of convention center expansion
Researchers at the University of Texas are going to ask the question that seems to be on every Austinite’s mind these days: “Can new, programmatic spatial configurations and economic models for urban convention centers be applied to downtown Austin in a meaningful and community-based manner?” That’s the prime mystery a study commissioned by City Council […]
Posted inCity Council
Memo outlines ‘downtown puzzle’ progress headed into 2018
Work on Mayor Steve Adler’s “downtown puzzle” policies package will be almost certainly put on hold until the spring when newly hired city manager Spencer Cronk will be able to study and work on how to execute the proposal. That was the word from Adler on Wednesday, following a Friday memo from Assistant City Manager […]
Posted inCity Council
Downtown puzzle up for vote Thursday
Consideration of Mayor Steve Adler’s complex “downtown puzzle” resolution will apparently move forward on Thursday despite doubts some of his colleagues have expressed about the timing and about a key piece of the plan: expansion of the Austin Convention Center. When the item came up at Tuesday’s work session, Adler called on City Council Member […]
Posted inCity Council
Council debates best use of HOT dollars
Some City Council members are clearly more convinced of the role that the Austin Convention Center plays in driving the city’s tourism industry and economy than others. The day after several Council members signaled support for a proposal by Council Member Ellen Troxclair that would slightly reduce the amount of Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue dedicated […]
Posted inAustin
Council takes long view on convention center, with eye toward spring
A decision on whether City Council will opt to expand the Austin Convention Center likely won’t come until spring 2018, based on discussions at Tuesday’s Council work session. That time frame came from Mayor Steve Adler after more than two hours of presentation and discussion on the recommendations of the city’s Visitor Impact Task Force, […]
Posted inAustin
Visit Austin contract included lobbying Council
When the CEO for the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau, recently renamed Visit Austin, signed his employment contract with the organization last May, the contract included an addendum directing him to develop a strategy for lobbying City Council to enlarge the Austin Convention Center. According to an addendum to Visit Austin CEO Tom Noonan’s contract, he […]
Posted inCourts
Updated: Visit Austin provides some data, withholds some
The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau, now operating as Visit Austin, released to the Austin Monitor on Wednesday a list of its 50 highest-paid employees, by job title and salary, not by name, as well as a compilation of the convention business the group says the convention center has lost since 2015 because of lack […]