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Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas
I'm willing to bet there's a lot of projects that had been proposed in the 70s and 80s that we've never heard of.
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Here's a project from the 1990's that I don't remember (sorry no photos or renderings) that was mentioned in a July 4, 2003 Austin Chronical article
Same as It Never Was
Some airports, forts, and boondoggles were never meant to be
It was called Capitol Town Center and it would have been built in the Robertson Hill area.
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A mall, a movie theatre, office space, and a hotel by both the interstate and downtown on a hilltop offering a postcard view of the city ... That was the Austin development dream of a California company in the late Eighties.
[...]
On June 21, 1991, Bennett Consolidated presented the plan to the city for the 1.2 million-square-foot development (which would make it larger than Highland Mall in terms of actual square feet). The company solicited input from East Austinites. Some welcomed the opportunity for new jobs and shopping. Others resented the idea of a megacomplex invading their residential area. The complex was to include: a 400-room hotel; 200,000 square feet of office space; 500,000 square feet for major anchor stores; 200,000 square feet of mall shops; and an eight-screen theatre.
The developers were shooting for a spring 1994 opening. The theatre could have been showing The Lion King and Forrest Gump. The development was big news for the desolate hillside that had been empty by this time for several years. The city gave permission, but only if construction began before July 1, 1993.
Not much seemed to be happening. One article in The Austin Chronicle said the city had sent a crew out to cut the overgrown weeds and billed Bennett Consolidated for the trouble. Then came July 1993. Construction had still not commenced. Some utilities were moved, but the city said that did not a construction project make. The property was finally sold in March 2000.
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The above article also mentions Le Palestra at 1008 Baylor - the failed condo project directly beneath the TMI Castle.