Rally Austin, the city nonprofit formerly known as the Austin Economic Development Corporation, will have about $11 million at its disposal to buy historic properties if they could enhance tourism and have cultural uses.
The Austin City Council Thursday passed a resolution that directs staff to work with the group and in conjunction with the city’s Equity-Based Preservation Plan to come up with a plan for allocating from in the largely unused Historic Preservation Acquisition Fund the city established in 2018.
The acquisition funds are funded by Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue and increase $2 million to $3 million per year.
The city formed the AEDC, recently rebranded as Rally Austin, in 2020 to help manage local economic and cultural preservation initiatives. Representatives from the city, local real estate companies, chambers of commerce, colleges and universities, and workforce, preservation, and transportation groups oversee the nonprofit.
