[Urbannizer]

After 2-year delay, work starts on Hotel ZaZa in downtown Austin

After a delay that lasted nearly two years, developers said this week that work has started on a 24-story downtown Austin tower that will house a 160-room high-end hotel and about 200 apartments.

Hotel ZaZa and Gables Residential first announced the project at West Fourth and Guadalupe streets in 2012, with plans to start construction in 2014 and open in 2016.

Instead, the lot – formerly the site of The Ginger Man, a bar – has sat largely untouched.

The project’s new completion date is late 2018, Hotel ZaZa president Benji Homsey said.

Aside from the pushed-back opening date, little about the project has changed, Homsey and Gables Residential development director Jennifer Wiebrand said. The same lenders are on board, the number of hotel rooms and apartment units remains the same and the building’s look is unaltered.