The Mission of the Downtown Alliance is to create, preserve and enhance the vibe, vitality, and value of downtown Austin for everyone. Luke gave us a great view of where downtown Austin is today and where it is headed.  There are lots of plans for the future!  

The health and vitality of Austin’s downtown guide all of their efforts. Their work is spread out through special projects, daily programs and collaborations that enable them to bolster the things that work, change the things that don’t.

The downtown ambassadors act as tour guides, keep the downtown clean, and help people in any way they can including medical care.  

State of Downtown 2023 shows that 11 projects totaling 3.85M SF were delivered and 7,190,393 SF is currently under construction. Construction is slowing down now a lot because we have been in a boom and have overbuilt.  However, hotel occupancy rates are robust and indicates that the economy is picking up.

Employee population is not anywhere near pre-Covid rates and doesn’t think it will ever be back to what it was in the past.  We may see 70% of pre-Covid levels of office space occupancy.

The areas of downtown are divided into Rainey St., Red River, East 6th St. and West 6th St.  Red River is the real music area.

There are tax credits available for historic buildings and there is a group buying up historical buildings along East 6th St with plans to keep the buildings as they were while bringing in better quality retailers.

There is the goal to keep the atmosphere of Austin alive and NOT turn Austin into a Dallas!

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