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The Carpenter Hotel is joining the Bunkhouse family as its ninth operating hotel. (Bunkhouse Group)
Sometimes the real gems are in our own backyard.
Take, for instance, Austin's Carpenter Hotel. The latest addition to Austin-based Bunkhouse Group, this hotel is nestled in an old pecan grove on the edge of Zilker Park in South Austin—an easy stroll to Lady Bird Lake and the draw of downtown.
The hospitality company behind Hotel Magdalena and Hotel Saint Cecilia has taken reigns of the historic property that former Ace Hotel group co-owner Jack Barron made into a hotel in 2018.
This 93-room getaway spot nurtures strong ties to Texas' past. The hotel lobby, cafe and restaurant were constructed in the former Carpenters Local 1266 Union Hall, built in 1948. And traces of the bygone era remain in the vintage stadium speakers retrofitted to play music at the front desk or the Biergarten furniture scattered around the property.
The hotel shows off airy walkways and a bright, naturally lit interior. Other than some minor small design updates throughout the property, Bunkhouse says it plans on keeping the property's character and spirit intact. It also plans on adding "new cultural programming and retail offerings."
All rooms come with their own terrace, and visitors can drift away the summer days by the hotel's pool, expansive lawn and pavilion. An in-house cafe serves coffee, kolaches and tacos, and an on-site restaurant, Carpenter's Hall, fashions itself in the same retro feel as its hotel counterpart—serving, as the website puts it, "New Eyes on Old Texas" cuisine.
"Our end goal for Carpenter Hotel is to achieve the totality of the experience that creates a neighborhood anchor: live music, the arts, activism, retail, culinary, one-of-a-kind events, deep community engagement," Amar Lalvani, CEO of Standard Hotels and Bunkhouse Group, said.
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Popular
(Tesla)
Giga Texas, the massive Tesla factory in southeast Travis County is getting even bigger.
The company filed with the city of Austin this week to expand its headquarters with a new 500,000-square-foot building. The permit application notes “GA 2 and 3 expansion,” which indicates the company will make two general assembly lines in the building.
More details about the plans for the building are unclear. The gigafactory has been focused on Model Y production since it opened in April, but the company is also aiming for Cybertruck production to kick off in mid-2023.
While there is room for expansion on the 3.3 square miles of land Tesla has, this move comes after CEO Elon Musk’s recent comments about the state of the economy and its impact on Tesla.
In a May interview with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, Musk said the gigafactories in Berlin and Austin are “gigantic money furnaces” and said Giga Texas had manufactured only a small number of cars.
And in June, Musk sent a company wide email saying Tesla will be reducing salaried headcount by 10%, then later tweeted salaried headcount should be fairly flat.
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(Dullnig Ranch Sales)
You’ll have to leave city limits if you’re looking for a proper ranch property like 417 Acres Shipp Lake Ranch, aptly named for its acreage. The property comes built out with three farmhouses, one of which has bedrooms and two bathrooms and two of which have two bedrooms and one bathroom. The nearly untouched property, which surrounds the 100-plus-acre Shipp Lake, has remained in the same family since the early 1900s and gives you picturesque views for the making of a dream home. In fact, the previous owners ran a water ski camp on the property.
Sitting waterside on Lake Austin, this home gives you the unique opportunity to own a piece of the lush Hill Country with views of Mount Bonnell. The 2,750-square foot, three-bedroom, four-bathroom house allows you to integrate indoor and outdoor life with large windows opening to an outdoor living area. The crown jewel is the .76-acre parcel of land that tapers off to your own lakeside resort, featuring an covered outdoor kitchen, fire pit, stone boat house to store your water sports supplies and veranda sitting at the mouth of the water, perfect for an entertainer.
Got dreams of becoming a real Texas rancher? 7814 Brown Cemetery Rd. is the perfect place to start with 40 rolling acres of land and its very own swimming hole. Just east of Austin in Manor, the modest-on-the-outside home clocks at 4,412 square feet with five bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms, but there are an additional two living structures on the property. The horseshoe-shaped pond sits in the heart of the property and comes equipped with a water slide, diving board and a fishing dock.