Hmm, well now this is odd.
From the Austin American-Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/02/07/7intel.html
Reprieve sought for Intel shell
Plans announced for Feb. 25 demolition
By Kate Alexander
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
The tortured history of the unfinished Intel building downtown took an odd turn Tuesday, when city leaders tried to delay the impending destruction of the shell that has lain dormant since the technology bust.
Mayor Will Wynn and other city leaders have launched an eleventh-hour campaign to save the skeleton, saying there may be a better use for it.
Long derided as an urban eyesore, the shell at Fifth and San Antonio streets is slated to be razed for a new federal courthouse building later this month. In fact, the U.S. General Services Administration announced Tuesday an "implosion event" for Feb. 25 that will destroy the Intel shell, which has sat unfinished since the computer chip maker stopped construction of its $124 million project in March 2001.
Construction of the courthouse could begin in 2009 and be completed in 2012, said Shala Geer-Smith, a spokeswoman for the General Services Administration.
But Wynn said a delay of the demolition could benefit the federal government because private interests might be willing to pay a pretty penny for the structure and land.
He and other downtown supporters are quickly making that pitch to local federal judges.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin said that he would meet with Wynn this week and that it would be premature to comment on the suggestion.
It is unclear what steps would be necessary to change the plan.
Wynn says the downtown real estate market has changed markedly since the land was bought for a courthouse in 2004. At that time, nobody wanted land in that area of downtown, he said. "Now, everybody is interested in that quadrant of downtown," Wynn said.
A private developer might be able to use the concrete and steel shell, Wynn said.
Wynn said he did not want to delay the courthouse.However, he said, perhaps the federal government could make enough money from the sale to find another area that would benefit from the public investment and to start construction before 2009, Wynn said.
One champion for federal money to eliminate the "eyesore," U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said he would support a delay so an alternative could be considered if there is a buyer that might want the structure in its present form.
"Anything we can do to protect the redevelopment of downtown that is currently under way, we certainly want to do," Doggett said.
Doggett said the General Services Administration estimates that it would take two years to find a new location for the courthouse and another two years to design a building.
A spokeswoman for the administration could not be reached Tuesday afternoon to address the suggested change.
The U.S. Postal Service recently agreed to swap its downtown location at Fifth and Guadalupe streets, which was not constrained by the Capitol view corridor regulations, for a new home a block west. In its place, private developers plan to put a 40-story tower with condominiums, hotel rooms and ground-floor retail.
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...plus, if the I-35 main lanes are ever trenched below grade through downtown (as has been long-planned), those Capitol views won't apply, for obvious lack of visibility from the freeway.
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