Completion of the Hyatt Centric Congress Avenue Austin is nigh, Colorado-based developer McWhinney announced Tuesday. The 31-story hotel at 721 Congress Avenue in downtown Austin will have 246 guest rooms, including five suites, and 2,560 square feet of meeting and event space.
If memory serves, early drafts of the vision for the 31-story hotel indicated that it would be called the Avenue, that it would have no onsite parking, and that it would, in fact, be an apartment complex and not a hotel.
That ... didn't happen, but the word "Avenue "is still there in the name somewhere, and the building brings some of freshness, if not the reality, of its youthful ideas to the corner of Congress and Eighth Street.
In addition to Denver-based McWhinney, the development team includes Austin architects Nelsen Partners and Hyatt Hotels. Texas-based firm Duncan Miller Ullmann designed the interiors, which we'll let the McWhinney website describe: "The hotel’s interior space will deliver an 'Austin boho-chic' vibe and feature a curated art collection by local Austin-area artists," it reads.
The hotel will have 4,450 square feet of ground-floor restaurant and entertainment space, a second-floor bar, an eighth-floor outdoor lounge and bar, and a 24-hour fitness center. Hospitality plans include a restaurant from chef Steve McHugh.
The Hyatt Centric, a boutique Hyatt brand, plans to offer a 1,400 square-foot presidential suite that will be available as private event space.
The official opening is scheduled for Feb. 1, 2023.
