SUITE DIGS

Long-awaited 600-room hotel checks into Austin with restaurants and market

After years of delays, downtown Austin’s newest hotel is finally checking in guests.

The Austin Marriott Downtown, the 31-story, 613-room hotel located at 304 E. Cesar Chavez St. just steps from the Austin Convention Center, is now open, with 60,000 square feet of meeting space, several new eateries and bars, and a rooftop pool terrace with expansive downtown views.

Aiming to augment the offerings of the existing JW Marriott Austin hotel at Second Street and Congress Avenue, the new Austin Marriott Downtown was originally scheduled to open in the summer of 2019, a date that was eventually pushed back to summer 2020. But thanks to the many challenges that arose because of the pandemic, that date got pushed back again.

Now up and running, the Austin Marriott Downtown is celebrating its grand opening with a special offer: Through May 30, guests can get a 15 percent discount on guest rooms plus two complimentary cocktails from any of the property’s restaurants and bars.

Those include Zanzibar, the tiki-inspired cocktail bar and eatery that opened in September and is located on the hotel’s seventh-story rooftop pool terrace, as well as Corinne Restaurant, a ground-floor spot featuring American comfort food and a spacious outdoor dining patio, and The Lobbyist, a two-story cocktail bar and lounge. The hotel also includes urban grocery spot Loaf + Vine, which offers bakery goods, grab-and-go items, coffee, and freshly made meals.

Designed in a modern style and highlighting natural Texas materials like cedar and limestone, the Austin Marriott Downtown includes 25 suites and an array of tech-enhanced conveniences, including touchless check-in and check-out service, and elevator and in-room television control via a personal smartphone.

But it is the property’s capacious and flexible meetings accommodations that hotel reps are touting as particularly noteworthy. Tailored to meet every kind of gathering, from those needing socially distanced configurations to larger conventions, the hotel’s events and meetings spaces include an 18,000-square-foot exhibit hall and two 14,000-square-foot ballrooms. Combined with the meetings space at sister hotel JW Marriott Austin, the two properties now possess a significant portion of the city's event space.

Both the JW Marriott Austin and the new Austin Marriott Downtown are owned and operated by hotel development and management company White Lodging, which owns and/or manages more than 4,000 guest rooms and 10 restaurants and bars in the downtown Austin area, including the Westin Austin Downtown, Aloft Austin Downtown, and its recently opened millennial-focused hotel, Moxy Austin, located on the Drag.

With downtown Austin businesses hit particularly hard by the pandemic, the opening of the Austin Marriott Downtown marks a notable moment for the company, as well as the hospitality industry in general.

“This hotel is where Austin’s individuality meets the spirit of Texas,” says David Meisner, general manager of the Austin Marriott Downtown. “With our state-of-the-art meetings facilities, wide selection of food-and-beverage outlets and thoughtfully appointed guest rooms, guests can reach their full creative potential. We are ready to be the first to safely welcome so many back to this great city as travel regains its footing.”

A key feature of the new Austin Marriott Downtown is the property's seventh-floor pool terrace.

Courtesy of Marriott International Inc.

A key feature of the new Austin Marriott Downtown is the property's seventh-floor pool terrace.

high-rises openings downtown hotels

Be Free

Free Week is ready to rock again with new City of Austin funding

Photo courtesy of Red River Cultural District / Renee Dominguez

Chancla Fight Club performs at Valhalla during a previous Free Week Festival.

The Red River Cultural District (RRCD)'s Free Week music festival is back, and perhaps better than ever after some newly secured funding from the City of Austin.

On January 3 and 4, this admission-free winter music festival will bring Austinites back-to-back performances from dozens of local musicians, spanning over 20 venues, restaurants, bars, and food trucks in the Red River area.

Free Week, which began in Austin over 20 years ago, was nearly canceled earlier in 2024 due to lack of funding. But thanks to a decision made on November 7 — after a long and hard-fought battle between RRCD and City Council — Free Week and RRCD's other popular festival Hot Summer Nights are saved for the foreseeable future.

Here's what happened, according to RRCD interim Executive Director Nicole Klepadlo.

Back in 2023, RRCD — a few blocks featuring a high concentration of popular music venues and other nightlife destinations — started pleading its case for funding with the City of Austin. At the time organizers were hoping for a cultural funding grant to help support their donation-based summer festival, Hot Summer Nights. Unfortunately it was declined and still, today, Klepadlo is not really sure why.

"We were just kind of perplexed," she says.

So, they needed to pivot. In January of 2024, they presented their case to the City of Austin's Boards and Commissions, essentially requesting funding for the district as a whole, which would ultimately support their festivals. After some back-and-forth negotiating and even rejections early in the year, finally, on November 7, the RRCD's advocacy paid off.

"We received $150,000 annually for up to four years for cultural district funding," says Klepadlo. "It will largely go to supporting Free Week and Hot Summer Nights. But it will also go to an economic analysis. One of the things people kept saying is 'What is the economic impact of your district?' So this will help leverage us for other future funding opportunities through brands or donors."

It's not just about urgent needs, now. RRCD is also planning to start work on a new "cultural history project" showcasing the area's lasting value to locals.

"We want to start diving into the musical heritage of the Red River Cultural District and start telling the stories," says Klepadlo. "Many of these venues were different venues than they are today; we've had a lot of musicians who got their start here back in the 70s."

Some of the venues and businesses involved in the RRCD include the Waterloo Amphitheater, Mohawk, Cheer Up Charlies, Stubbs, Valhalla, The 13th Floor, Elysium, Empire Control Room and Garage, Creek and Cave, Chess Club, Swan Dive, Barbarella, Flamingo Cantina, various food trucks, restaurants, and groups like the German Texas Heritage Society, the First Baptist Church, and the Austin Symphony. All told, there are about 40 businesses that are engaged on a regular basis.

Of course, it wasn't always like this. After a wave of venue closures back in 2015, a group of music venue representatives, small businesses, and members of cultural institutions all got together for one of Klepadlo's "favorite meetings" at The Mohawk.

"Back then there were over 12 independent live music venues, so there was a lot of competition," she says. "But we were all sitting around this table at Mohawk realizing, 'We've got to band together.' And that has morphed into forging this unified voice and collective, that has really ended up identifying the needs for this particular place. Not just for locals, but for jobs and tourism."

A meeting at Mohawk back in 2015 helped form what the RRCD is today.Photo from redriverculturaldistrict.org.

Another of the RRCD's hopes is that it can keep the vibe of the area intact going forward, even through the fast development is sweeping across the east side of downtown. Organizers want to collaborate with the city to make sure the district stays there (and stays cool) for years to come.

When asked if there might be something the RRCD could do to prevent venues from getting bulldozed and replaced by condos or something, Klepadlo replies, "We wish."

Right now RRCD hasn't gotten the traction or support it'd like in order to ensure that future development in the area honors what the district is all about. But Klepadlo is hopeful.

"This funding gives me hope that as we start to think about what happens to the eastern part of downtown, there will be a Red River Cultural District that looks like it does today; only more vibrant," she says. "I'm really excited to see where things go from here."

Aside from this new funding from the City of Austin, this year's Free Week is also supported by sponsors and partners like Airbnb, Austin Chronicle, KUTX 98.9 FM, Downtown Austin Alliance, The Moody Center’s Red River Rising, and many more.

The music lineup for Free Week will be revealed soon, as well as a new lineup of food and drink promotions. CultureMap will share updates as they're available.

civic issues city council live music concerts festivals free