Developer trying to lure national retailer downtown
Site museum set to leave has enough space companies need
ByShonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Published: 10:51 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Austin developer Tom Stacy plans to bring Congress Avenue retail back in a big way by luring a major national or international store to a 17,000-square foot space at a building he owns on Austin's premier avenue. T. Stacy & Associates and Amstar, which own the building at 823 Congress Ave., are looking for a "triple A" tenant to fill the space, now occupied by the Austin Museum of Art. The museum will vacate in November to consolidate at its Laguna Gloria site in West Austin.
The Downtown Austin Alliance, a coalition of downtown property and business owners, has been working to attract more local and national retailers downtown for years. One element that strategy lacked, Stacy said, was a space big enough for a retailer needing 15,000 to 20,000 square feet.
Stacy said the street-level space the museum will empty fits the bill, and "the timing is perfect" to reposition the space at Congress Avenue and Ninth Street for retail.
Stacy said he already is in discussions with some prospects, including national companies, but declined to name them. He said he hopes to have a leased signed by the time the museum leaves.
He said he plans to redesign the ground-floor space to accommodate a retail tenant, including adding floor-to-ceiling windows and other enhancements.
Stacy has tapped Craig Sorrels, a veteran retail consultant, to recruit the retailer. Sorrels has represented such retailers as Ann Taylor, Brooks Brothers, Dana Buchman and Baccarat.
Sorrels also was a former senior vice president for real estate development and business strategy for the Walt Disney Co., where he helped develop the Disney Stores worldwide.
Stacy's retail storefront will be "exactly the kind of location that name-brand retailers — the top-of-mind stores who advertise in every major magazine and have stores from London to New York — dream about," said Sorrels, owner of CSWG Inc., a retail and property development consulting company based in Dallas.
Sorrels is familiar with the downtown retail landscape, having worked for the past four years with the Downtown Austin Alliance to recruit national retailers to Congress Avenue, which he will continue to do.
Stacy said he estimates spending $2 million to $3 million to redesign the space to accommodate a large retailer. With the economy improving, Stacy said Austin "is on everybody's radar screen."
"Retailers are looking at Austin," he said, noting that it has a growing residential population of about 9,000 people, along with the 60,000 to 70,000 people who work downtown.
Molly Alexander, the alliance's associate director, said having a large retailer on Congress Avenue, at a "game-changing location," will help propel the group's retail recruiting efforts and also will help establish the street as a retail destination.
"A national or international retailer brings awareness to the market, creates a destination in and of itself, and draws more shoppers to the Avenue," Alexander said. "We want to keep Congress unique and ensure we have healthy, strong local businesses. And what they need is more shoppers, and that is what a few national retailers can bring to them."