The owners of the Alamo Drafthouse bought the old Baker School from Austin ISD in 2017. They said they'd restore the building and build a block of affordable homes on the 4-acre property in Hyde Park.
But years after the sale, there is no affordable housing on the Baker School plot — and no plans to build any. So, how did AISD sell a piece of public land Would-be buyers and renters readied their pitches. But there was a catch: AISD asked that any development offer some benefit to the public school system, either by providing educational opportunities for kids, affordable housing for teachers or a significant source of revenue for the district.
The founders of the Alamo Drafthouse were among the bidders. Tim and Karrie League agreed to pay $10.6 million for the school and proposed converting the building into the movie theater company’s new headquarters. The couple also planned to build up to 70 homes on the propertyA screenshot of a map the owners of the Alamo Drafthouse had created for their bid for the Baker School in 2016.“We didn’t expect to get it,” Karrie League told KUT last month.
League said she believes AISD chose their offer because they agreed to maintain the historic school. But according to the original bids, at least one other entity agreed to keep the building.several responded but only one was willing to talk.Wax figures and floodwaters The props and posters distract, at first, from the building’s interior. The Leagues spent more than $4 million renovating, including rehabbing the original wood floors and student lockers. Despite it being a private building, its restoration has been touted as one of the ways in which the property benefits the public; it also includes office space for a nonprofit that teaches students guitar and serves as a polling station .
What’s also puzzling is that when the City of Austin bid to buy the Baker School it did not mention flooding. The city said it had envisioned building dozens of permanent affordable homes on the land; three years later, it said it needed the land to be used as a detention pond instead. Austin’s housing department, which wrote the bid, would not agree to an interview. Mike Kelly, assistant director of Austin’s Watershed Department, chocked it up to a lack of communication among departments.
They can do whatever they want with it, they own it
Pretty sensational headline when the answer is that the city asked to buy that land back for a different use and got it.
Really you have to ask how that happened?
Can we say “Covid and it’s shutdowns nearly bankrupted Alamo Drafthouse”?
drafthouse
Was it too expensive or overregulated.
I have been wondering about this
Woah AustinISD.Why all the past tense language “woulda , shoulda…. drafthouse now with business looking good - time make good on your word. Quite an equity windfall 🤯 10.6 - 3.8 mil sale of acre for retention =6.8 mil purchase. Where is the community benefit ? Jeez.
incompetence, saved you a click
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