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In its heyday, The TarryTown Shopping Center bustled with shoppers. But today, a lot of the beloved shops are gone. (Blair Newberry)
Tarrytown's Casis Village shopping center is buzzing with activity on a crisp Sunday afternoon in December. Customers flock to Randall's to check off their grocery lists, grab seasonal lattes from Starbucks and peruse the center's various thrifty boutiques and jewelry stores for Christmas gift inspiration.
For many longtime Austinites, the bustling plaza may bring back memories of the former glory of one of the city's most famous and controversial shopping centers, which has since been reduced to a ghost town by its authoritarian landlord.
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eb42ad22d563e34530df7aac33a9b0d0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="250bc" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4Nzg2OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzYyMzYxMn0.JlPUF9mIoDWTxHgrU4fs0JEpN3a4BgBzQpegpalVJmc/img.jpg?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption..." spellcheck="false">Aerial view of TarryTown Shopping Center flanked on the west by Exposition Boulevard and on the south by Windsor Road in 1948. (Austin History Center, Austin Public Library)</small></p><p>Towering over a corner of the Casis Village that used to belong to a Blockbuster is the Tarrytown Pharmacy. It has served locals since Dec. 6, 1941, the day before Japanese soldiers attacked Pearl Harbor. Far from your run-of-the-mill chain pharmacy, the nearly 80-year-old apothecary beckons customers to roam its aisles and browse its assortment of artisanal gifts, including decorative stationery, denim dresses and scented candles with names like "baltic amber" and "santiago huckleberry." <br/></p><p>Before it relocated to Casis Village in 2010, the Tarrytown Pharmacy operated out of the TarryTown Shopping Center, roughly half a mile down the road. These days, the once-thriving center now stands largely desolate, cutting a vastly different figure than the bustling Casis Village.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9f19dec42ddf4180bfbe516b04408efa" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="b5d22" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NTgyNy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTQ2MTgxMX0.pInn6QvvfHnGnET5c9k1eDitepoJ13p5YS5AhsTP2fg/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption..." spellcheck="false">The Tarrytown Pharmacy in the TarryTown Shopping Center before it moved to Casis Village. (Blair Newberry)</small></p><p>Save for the handful of couples eating lunch at vegan gastropub the Beer Plant, there are few customers to be found between the barbershop, liquor store, vegan grocery, various exercise studios and Austin Pets Alive! that occupies the TarryTown Shopping Center's sprawling corner lot.</p><p>A sign facing the street next to the TarryTown Shopping Center bears a picture of a lamb on one side and a cow wearing a Santa hat on the other. Its two all-caps slogans create a fitting credo for the center's mercurial landlord, Jeanne Crusemann Daniels: "PEACE TO ALL BEINGS" and "JOY TO ALL BEINGS."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1a2abe67e5c5c5db368471b62d6fa524" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="09a26" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NTg0OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzg3MjY3MX0.tAqIYnfAREYM8B1N7jswZ7VnJefkWgPFEShaOQNGuZY/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Jeanne Crusemann in high school. (Lynn Pugh Remadna)</small></p><p><br/></p><p>A staunch animal rights activist and vegan, Daniels is seldom seen at the TarryTown Shopping Center, but her presence is always felt. Since inheriting the center from her mother Mary Lee Crusemann, in 1999, Daniels has systematically eliminated every business that used or sold animal products. </p><p>Restaurants like the beloved Holiday House burger joint and Texas French Bread met the chopping block, as did the TarryTown Pharmacy, which sells drugs tested on animals. But Daniels' policy also extended to the Austin Shoe Hospital, which was ordered to keep its leather shoelaces out of sight from customers; Steve's Liquor & Fine Wines, which was barred from putting caviar in its gift baskets; and the Chevron filling station, which was forced to stop selling milk-based candy bars.</p><p>The TarryTown Shopping Center used to be a place where kids could drop their bikes and grab a malt after school, local politicians could hold court over baskets of burgers and fries and customers could get their prescriptions cheerfully refilled by memory. But Daniels' iron-fisted policies have transformed it from a thriving community hub into a barren relic that doesn't adequately meet the needs of the neighborhood, according to several former tenants and longtime Tarrytown residents.</p><p><br/></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5f274f47a846755620975b51c01a6b79" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="af597" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NTg4NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODQ4NjE1NH0.fM4_uk4v58EAYWoeu0ZztkLEmQTRVao8buVlOQHqFzw/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption..." spellcheck="false">The Tarrytown Shopping Center attracted many for its busy shops and restaurants. (Blair Newberry)</small></p><p><br/></p><p>"It was part of the fabric of what made that neighborhood so great," says Mark Newberry, owner of the TarryTown Pharmacy. "And now when you drive by, it's something that you hold against the neighborhood."</p><p>Daniels declined to be interviewed for this story, as she has turned down many reporters over the years. When asked about the origin of her commitment to animal rights, she recommended—via Belva Green, owner of the DT Land Group, which manages the TarryTown Shopping Center—two books: Peter Singer's "Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for our Treatment of Animals" and Ernest Freeberg's "A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement."</p><p>If Daniels' policies are confounding and infuriating to many Austinites, they're also remarkable. She is a rare breed of a business owner who makes her decisions based solely on principle, not profit. And she is rumored to have passed up much of the latter, declining various offers from locals to buy the TarryTown Shopping Center for several times its estimated value.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f38eed9efa6a767cd65124e9912e6dcd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="34135" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NTg3Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTMzNjI0Nn0.4BvUz95RxxZFfGKJ45P31Xemnj8MxLhjJiXAb8PS7T4/img.jpg?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption..." spellcheck="false">High school yearbook photo of Jeanne Crusemann. (Lynn Pugh Remadna)</small></p><p><br/></p><p>"She couldn't care less about making money," Newberry says. "She's trying to drive an agenda. And when you put someone who doesn't care about money and her agenda together, that's very dangerous."</p><p>The TarryTown Pharmacy has been in the Newberry family for three generations, since Gatewood Newberry purchased the store from original owner Guy Kelly in the 1940s. At its original Tarrytown Shopping Center location, the pharmacy quickly became a pillar of the community, a place for shoppers to grab a malt at the soda fountain or play a few rounds of pinball at the front of the store while waiting to get their prescriptions filled. </p><p>"There was a whole little group from the neighborhood," says Lynn Pugh Remadna, whose family owned a bridge construction company and leased office space in the TarryTown Shopping Center for decades. "They'd sit (in the pharmacy) and just have a great time talking, you know, having their coffee and talking about how to solve the world's problems."</p><p>TarryTown shoppers could also congregate at Ralph Moreland's Holiday House and savor one of the owner's famous flame-grilled hamburgers. The local hotspot drew numerous high-profile guests over the years, including golfer Arnold Palmer, actor Dennis Quaid and George W. Bush, then the governor of Texas. Regardless of their resume, every Holiday House customer was treated with the same respect and discretion, per Moreland's policy.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ef1e2246f001e44a4113b0ac34717dfa" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="d847b" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NTg2MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMTc4NzM0N30.btSlKwICT9_uH5bfF6cBm1IrZfoMnuTMYT15ileiKsk/img.jpg?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Holiday House in 2004 before it closed. (Jeannie Moreland LeTeff)</small></p><p><br/></p><p>In its heyday, the TarryTown Shopping Center radiated friendliness and security. Parents could catch up with their neighbors as they stocked up on weekly provisions at the grocery store, and they knew their kids were in good hands if they went there after school to grab a bite to eat with their hard-earned allowances.</p><p>"I remember many times, if I ate all my breakfast, my grandpa would give me 50 cents to $1.50 and tell me to go down to the pharmacy, and I would get special treats, whether it was ice cream or a shake or fudge," says Moreland's granddaughter, Lono Zurita. "Everybody knew everybody's name. It was really a close-knit community."</p><p>In 1857, Gov. Elisha Pease purchased the land for the TarryTown estate, then known as Woodlawn, from Texas State Comptroller James Shaw. Pease's grandson, Niles Graham, opened the first phase of Tarrytown—named for the family's New York summer retreat—in 1934 along with his cousin Murray Graham, his sister Carrie Margaret Graham and her husband Paul Crusemann. Five years later, they opened the Tarrytown Shopping Center at the intersection of Windsor Road and Exposition Boulevard, with the goal of providing a one-of-a-kind shopping destination for what would become one of Austin's wealthiest neighborhoods. </p><p>For a while, it did just that. "It was one of the finest retail centers in the entire state. I mean, it was jam-packed 24/7," says Newberry, who graduated from high school in 1996 and witnessed many of the TarryTown Shopping Center's banner years. "That parking lot would be 100% full, and some days, it would overflow onto the street. And I remember thinking, wow, I sure am lucky that my dad owns the store because I can park in the back. Because there literally would not be anywhere to park." </p><p>Paul Crusemann's son Paul Conrad Crusemann, married Mary Lee Wilson in 1940, and she inherited the center after his death in 1968. Reverently referred to as "Mrs. Crusemann" by many of her tenants, Mary Lee was a tough but fair businesswoman and a razor-sharp dresser whose vintage Jaguar couldn't be missed. Crusemann commanded respect and was particular about what tenants could display on her properties. </p><p>Neal Newberry, former owner of the TarryTown Texaco and uncle of Mark Newberry, quickly learned that when he decorated his storefront with commemorative Indy 500 banners one year. </p><p>"I saw her at the intersection where the stoplight is," Neal recalls. "She was staring at all these banners, and she made a beeline on the property. I'm standing out there, of course, and she rolls up, cranks her window down and says, 'Neal, you're trashing my property. Get them down.'"</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="00a9d05a5c1e816353cbaa12c414e9a4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="2c2b2" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NTg2Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzQ0NDMxNn0.s3ijX8PZqZT3vah0mDq4pzb4NI1SDCq0BmqH8hdT9nI/img.jpg?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">The original owner of the TarryTown Texaco in 1961. (Neal Newberry)</small></p><p><br/></p><p>Daniels, whom Remadna describes as a "glamorous, platinum-haired woman" in her later years, did not share her mother's business savvy, according to several former tenants. After inheriting the TarryTown Shopping Center in 1999, she instantly began overhauling it, as if to announce her homecoming with a vengeance. </p><p>"When her mother died, she had this big funeral over at Good Shepherd (Episcopal Church). It was like a dog and pony show," says Remadna, who briefly overlapped with Daniels at Austin High School. "It was like, 'Look at me, here I am. I was plain Jane and now look at me. I'm glamorous. I've got the center and y'all can't do anything about it.'" (Speaking of glamour: Several former tenants also talk of a fabled photograph of a pre-vegan Daniels wearing a lavish fur coat that exists somewhere in the ether among old Austinites.)</p><p>By that point, Remadna's family had left the TarryTown Shopping Center. Remadna had gone to the City Council on Crusemann's behalf to petition for a renovation of the center in the mid-'80s. The renovation was approved, but Crusemann wanted to place her family in a second-floor office across the street, which wouldn't have worked for her father, Robert Pugh, who suffered from arthritis.</p><p>Remadna wonders if the proposed move was part of Daniels' plan to replace the businesses on the main side of the TarryTown Shopping Center with retail. "(My father) didn't want to (leave Tarrytown), but it was kind of forced in some ways," she says. "And after I had gone to the City Council for her to get approval for her redo, I thought, 'Well, that's kind of ironic, isn't it?'"</p><p>Under Daniels' draconian rule, restaurants like the Holiday House, Texas French Bread and Chinese restaurant Formosa became the most obvious victims. When their leases prevented Daniels from ousting them entirely, she imposed outlandish restrictions that made it virtually impossible for them to do business.</p><p>"One day we were supposed to have a spray, or food safety bug inspection and all that, and she stopped it," Zurita says. "She had people outside on the sidewalk, collecting ants with straws." </p><p>The scene would have been farcical if it weren't so dire for Moreland. "You don't fail your complete health inspection, but you get fined from the city if you're not following protocol, which she tried to block," Zurita says. "So it became really, really nightmarish at the end."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e5a429e42abaceba3948f2045809a927" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="71ffd" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NTg2OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODE3ODY0NH0.w6hoHpxbTOAezszQEPLcZ9hfbwsoNytMBs29HUHcChs/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">(Blair Newberry)</small></p><p><br/></p><p>Newberry likewise had to do pest control after hours on the weekends to fly under Daniels' radar. He had also stopped selling leather-bound planners and beef jerky in the pharmacy, but the final straw came in August of 2009, when Daniels' representative told him he could no longer administer flu shots, which are mostly made using eggs. </p><p>"Her representative came and said, 'Hey, you can't give flu shots anymore,'" Newberry recalls. "This is a pharmacy. That's what we do. I can't not give flu shots."</p><p>By then, foot traffic at the TarryTown Shopping Center had atrophied to the point that Newberry and his employees had begun parking in front of the pharmacy to give the illusion of a crowd. Newberry had already been looking elsewhere for a new lease, but he immediately pulled the trigger on Casis Village after the flu shot fiasco. </p><p>"I thought, this is not even a negotiation for me to get out," he says. "I will take basically whatever (our new landlord) wants to charge me, because this is not long-term where I am. She obviously doesn't want me here. She doesn't like what we're doing. And that was not a good feeling to have."</p><p>Some tenants still tried to accommodate Daniels' demands. Moreland briefly added fancier dishes and cocktails to his menu, which Jeannie Moreland LeTeff, Moreland's daughter, says ended in disaster. Others, like Bill Broaddus, who ran the Chevron station where Austin Pets Alive! now stands, protested cheekily. Broaddus stopped selling milk-based candy bars at Daniels' behest, but he began giving every customer who received an oil change a coupon for a free hamburger at Sonic.</p><p>"That didn't seem to sit very well," Broaddus says with a laugh. </p><p>When he found his new lease offer filled with unreasonable provisions, Broaddus cut his losses and said goodbye to the Chevron station that had been in his family since his father opened it in 1941. He now owns several other stations around Austin, but he still looks back wistfully on his old stomping grounds.</p><p>"I miss TarryTown tremendously," Broaddus says. "It's really a special spot and it's a wonderful group of people there, and to me, they were certainly more than customers. They were friends."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f3708af37a5853ccd26ebc55530a135b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="eb737" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NTg5MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODgxMDM1Mn0.KmQ6zGz3kAkTwlOjV-XMVgYt39HJVRas7a2Y51oar10/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">A shop in the TarryTown ShoppingCenter. (Blair Newberry)</small></p><p><br/></p><p>With nearly every classic business besides the TarryTown Texaco gone, the Tarrytown Shopping Center of yesteryear is now a distant memory over which longtime Austinites wax nostalgic. Some tenants have been lucky enough to start fresh in new locations, but many of them never reopened after Daniels gave them the ax. </p><p>Every closure or relocation was another painful reminder that Daniels had ripped the heart out of a once-flourishing community that set the template for other upscale shopping centers in Austin, leaving a void in the neighborhood that has yet to be filled. </p><p>"This is a constant topic of discussion at every holiday party for the last 21 years when we see folks," Mark Newberry says. "I really wish that that would be better, because right now, it's just not. I want what Highland Park has and what River Oaks has and Alamo Heights. We were the first of all of those places, and now (the TarryTown Shopping Center is) the laughingstock of those places."</p><p>The center's downward trajectory doesn't seem likely to change, either. Daniels' vice grip on her tenants has only tightened over the years, and she is rumored to have left the center to the SPCA in her will. "I remember hearing at one point she didn't care if the shops sat empty," Zurita says.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eabe5a397edd6e7020707c8d98997566" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="25abb" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NTg4MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NDk2NjkyNH0.iFD6FDlSDt4JXvY9KGZjGFmeoMnd1X6w-RWF82O5u6Q/img.jpg?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Holiday House in 2004. (Jeannie LeTeff)</small></p><p><br/></p><p>These days, it's up to the descendants of Daniels' former tenants to keep the memory of the TarryTown Shopping Center alive. With its secure new lease and bigger, more visible property, Newberry's TarryTown Pharmacy continues to serve customers from Casis Village—with no restrictions on beef jerky, leather goods or flu shots. Meanwhile, Zurita preserves the Holiday House legacy by selling her grandfather's flame-cooked burgers at her Dripping Springs food truck, Lono's Southern Cooking & Keto Cuisine. Her customers remind her that the Holiday House—and the rest of the TarryTown Shopping Center—was more than a place to grab a burger. It was a monument to the best times of their lives.</p><p>"There was a group that came before Thanksgiving, and one of the ladies was like 90 years old," Zurita says. "She could barely walk, but they helped her get to a picnic table. And she started crying and she said, I've always dreamed and wished, before I passed on, that I could have my number two cheeseburger one more time.'"</p>
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Meet the two names from Austin behind the transformation of the new Joe Rogan podcast studio
10 September 2020
A cave-like room with electric red walls and blue light fixtures is the new home to the $100 million podcast of new Austin resident Joe Rogan. And who would Rogan trust to construct this room? None other than his fellow Austinites.
Rogan, a mixed martial arts enthusiast and comedian, entrusted two local businesses—Sound Shed Studios and Wrightsmith Studios—to construct his new podcast studio after <a href="https://austonia.com/joe-rogan-austin" target="_blank">recently moving</a> to Austin from Los Angeles. In just under three weeks, the two Austin companies scrambled to complete the project of their most high-profile client yet.
Timeline of Joe Rogan moving to Texas:
<iframe src='https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1xcjrf3UE-CwaDUPZs-m1o1gL2HI8bsJzyJuR1ztH8z0&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650' width='100%' height='650' webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen frameborder='0'></iframe><p>Sound Shed Studios, a local audio and visual business, was a side project Matthew Alvarez started 10 years ago, transforming a storage unit into a recording studio. Getting laid off from his full-time audio engineering job due to the pandemic and seeing the outcome of the Rogan studio, Alvarez has since decided to run Sound Shed Studios full time.</p><p>Alvarez began working with Rogan after getting a call from an old friend he had done some work for who said he wanted Alavarez to meet the person who had hired him for private security—Rogan. Alvarez met Rogan the next day, and the two had a thorough discussion about the studio design.<br></p><p>In an interview with Austonia, Alvarez said when he saw the room, he knew he had to make some major changes for it to be podcast ready, and when he told Rogan, Rogan responded with, "Hey, I trust you, I like you, build this out as if it were your own studio."</p><p>Alvarez, who usually works alone, gathered some friends—Jacob Rangel, Nate Laningham, Richard Castro, Nick Fette, Justin Contreras and Christopher Spikes—to jump on the project with him on a tight two-and-a-half-week deadline. Together, they sound proofed the inner walls with open core polyurethane foam, adding double doors and treating the finished room with sound dampening panels. </p><p>Rogan gave Alvarez the creative freedom—and budget—to make a stunning studio with input mostly on the color scheme.</p><p>At the completion of Sound Shed's part of the studio creation, Alvarez said he sent Rogan a photo of the studio, to which Rogan replied, "Fucking sick."</p><p>But it wasn't until Rogan saw it in person that Alvarez received the validation that the project was a success.</p><p>"He didn't really say much. I could tell that he was really absorbing everything, and he gave me a knuckle bump and [said], 'Matt, you killed it.' To hear that from him in person … I knew that we had something to be proud of," Alvarez said.</p>
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<p>And what's a podcast room without the right table? For that, Rogan brought in a recommendation from another famous podcaster in Austin, Adam Curry—the first guest on Rogan's Austin podcast.</p><p>Drew Teague, founder of <a href="https://www.wrightsmithstudios.com/about-us" target="_blank">Wrightsmith Studios</a>, is a friend of Curry's and was in the process of designing a podcast table for him when he was asked to put that project on hold by Curry to complete Rogan's Austin studio table.</p><p>While Wrightsmith Studios is only officially about a year old, Teague has had lots of experience building and fabricating unique furniture pieces, especially for studios.</p><p><br></p>
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</div></blockquote></div><p>After speaking with Rogan on what he wanted, Teague came up with a design. Usually clients will request tweaks to the design Teague said, but at first glance, Rogan said, "That's the one, build it."</p><p>On the same schedule as Sound Shed Studios, Teague also brought in outside help to complete the project on time, as he usually works all on his own.</p><p>Teague and his team made a 500 pound white oak discussion table with a specific frame for enough leg room for podcast guests.</p><p>When Rogan saw the table for the first time in person, he reached out to Teague and told him how much he loved it.</p><p>"[Rogan] is outstanding in every way," Teague said. "From the first meeting, he was friendly and down to earth; he was very encouraging."</p>
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<p>When Rogan posted the almost-complete podcast room to Instagram, tagging both <a href="https://www.instagram.com/soundshedstudios/" target="_blank">Sound Shed</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wrightsmithatx/" target="_blank">Wrightsmith</a> studios, the two accounts were all of a sudden in the public eye. Both accounts gained over a thousand new followers with direct messages asking questions about the studio and requests for their work.</p><p>Rogan is up and rolling in the new studio, and the two businesses behind it know their work payed off.</p><p>He could literally have anybody come in to [complete the studio] from anywhere, but he decided to find local guys who were already doing it in town at relatively small businesses," Teague said. "It says a lot about Joe's character."</p>
<p><em></em></p><p><em></em><strong><em>Want to read more stories like this one? Start every day with a quick look at what's happening in Austin. Sign up for Austonia.com's free daily morning email.</em></strong></p>
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Operation Spider Web leads to 13 arrests in drug trafficking ring that targeted UT students
05 December 2020
(Pexels)
At least 13 former and current University of Texas students were arrested and charged in connection with trafficking counterfeit prescription drugs laced with fentanyl and methamphetamines to UT students in Austin.
<p>"During the course of this investigation, two of the targets died from drug overdoses," U.S. Attorney Gregg N. Sofer <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdtx/pr/13-arrested-connection-lsd-fentanyl-and-methamphetamine-trafficking-and-money" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said in a statement Friday</a>. "When unsuspecting college kids and other drug seekers put these pills in their mouths, they are playing Russian roulette. They are gambling that profit-seeking drug dealers did not place lethal doses of unknown chemicals or fentanyl in these pills." </p><p>Federal, state and local authorities announced the arrests on Friday following a search effort the day before that led to the seizure of large quantities of fentanyl, Adderall, Xanax, LSD, marijuana and psilocybin, or hallucinogenic mushrooms, as well as several firearms and approximately $100,000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. </p><p>The defendants allegedly conspired to distribute the drugs in the Austin metro area since April 2019 and to launder the profits, per a press release.</p><p>The Austin Tactical Diversion Squad, a law enforcement task force targeting counterfeit drug trafficking, conducted "Operation Spider Web," as the investigation was called, along with partner agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Travis County Sheriff's Office and the Austin Police Department. </p><p>"This has potentially saved many people from the dangers and risks associated with illegal drug use and furthers our mission of keeping Austin residents safe," APD Chief Brian Manley said in a statement. </p><p>Local officials noticed a significant increase in overdoses among UT students over the course of the investigation, which began following a tip submitted early last year, according to <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/news/crime/2020/12/04/13-charged-drug-trafficking-ring-targeting-ut-students-austin/3825291001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a report by the Austin American-Statesman</a>. </p><p>If convicted of the drug conspiracy charges, the defendants face between 10 years and life in federal prison. The money laundering conspiracy charges carry sentences of up to 20 years. </p><p>Those arrested include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Varun Prasad, 23, of Austin</li><li>Charles Zenker, 26, of Houston</li><li>Benny Daneshjou, 68, of Austin</li><li>Ashley Larue, 26, of Austin</li><li>Drew Zarate, 21, of Austin</li><li>Christopher Edwards, 32, of Portland</li><li>Jacob Schelling, 21, of Cypress</li><li>Madison Scott, 22, of Houston</li><li>Adrian Andreescu, 21, of Plano</li><li>Niki Shingari, 21, of Austin</li><li>Nolan Fogleman, 21, of Austin</li><li>Samuel Parry, 23, of Austin</li><li>Brandon Carpenter, 27, of Austin </li></ul><p>Prasad, Daneshjou, Laru and Zarate were also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. </p><p>Shingari is a current student at UT, and six others are former students, as <a href="https://thedailytexan.com/2020/12/04/13-people-current-former-ut-austin-students-arrested-charged-drug-trafficking-west-campus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the Daily Texan reported</a>. </p><p>Daneshjou previously <a href="https://www.myplainview.com/news/article/Actress-wins-about-7-million-in-lawsuit-over-8950300.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">made headlines in 2004</a>, when Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock sued the builder, whom she said did shoddy work on her Lake Austin home. </p>
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(Shutterstock)
Zilker Park is located in the Barton Hills neighborhood, just southwest of downtown Austin.
A decade ago, Barton Hills resident Mark Sprague could not have imagined his community now commands home prices that can soar above $3 million.
But times have changed.
<p>Sprague, who also serves as the state director of information capital at Independence Title Company and has lived in the roughly 2.8-square-mile neighborhood since 1996, credits its success with good schools and a prime location. Barton Hills is a stone's throw from downtown Austin, or about a 10-minute drive southwest from City Hall.</p><p>"At one point, south of the (Colorado) River wasn't very exciting, but that's probably 30 years ago," Sprague said. "And, of course, we all know what's happened to South Austin—it's exploded. Particularly Barton Hills has seen phenomenal appreciation." </p><p>Sprague said the central location of Barton Hills and its surrounding 78704 ZIP code has probably had some of the highest appreciation in Austin over the past three decades.</p><p>"There are no homes available right now," Blairfield Realty broker-owner Donna Blair said of Barton Hills. She said sales prices have climbed continuously over the past decade that she's been selling in the area.</p><p>But Susan Barringer, a Realtor with Kuper Sotheby's International Realty attributed the sharp uptick since 2016 to high demand and low inventory.</p><p>"We've just had an influx of Californians, New Yorkers," Barringer said. "It's just a great family neighborhood with great proximity to everything Austin—the airport, downtown."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="229af31f480000185ec721627a5c96c6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="69ee8" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc5NjY0My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTkwMzg1NX0.Nk2p7Wc1JmbZ_7cnZ5W_1dZWNBWVr2fmh8eg4XIza6Q/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">(Google Maps)</small></p><p>According to Zillow, Barringer's October listing—a 2,533 square-foot home on Barton Hills drive—is priced at $1.2 million, a 36% increase over its 2016 sales price of $880,500.<br/></p><p>Austin Board of Realtors president Romeo Manzanilla, whose Realty Austin firm has been involved with Tesla employee relocations, said those executive buyers are looking in the Barton Hills and Zilker neighborhoods but have also broadened their home searches to southwest Austin and the Circle C neighborhood. Tesla is building a gigafactory in Del Valle, 13 miles down Texas 71 from Barton Hills. </p><p>"The desire, initially, from a lot of these people, especially if they haven't lived in Austin, is they want to be central, the 78704 ZIP code or 78702 (in East Austin)," he said. "But once they start to realize there is a serious lack of inventory, they're expanding their search outward."</p><p>Blair said multiple offers are common for the area's homes.</p><p>"We've watched that price per (square) foot jump constantly," she said. "Years ago, suddenly $600,000 (becomes) the 'new' $400,000 (sales price)," she said. "A new threshold keeps being set, and it has been happening very rapidly, and I don't know what to expect (or) when we're ever going to see that slow down."</p><p>The average price per square foot of single-family homes selling in the Barton Hills and Zilker neighborhoods grew almost $100 over the past two years, Blairfield Realty's director of marketing Hannah Hamrick said.</p><p>According to ABoR, the average price of a home sold in Barton Hills was about $822,000. In 2019, that average price jumped 17% to about $894,000.</p><p>Both Blair and Sprague said the starting price for an unremodeled home in the community now ranges from about $800,000 to $850,000. </p><p>The area's growth has taken Sprague by surprise. He said the corporations that now call Austin home weren't in place 20 or 30 years ago. Among those are Oracle and Tesla, each considered accessible from Barton Hills.</p><p>"Was that something you could have forecast?" Sprague said. "No." </p><p><strong>So, who's buying in Barton Hills and why?</strong> </p><p>More young families are buying into the neighborhood, Sprague said, representing a change in demographics from the original owners who built their homes in the 1960s—structures that are now being torn down to make way for modern projects. </p><p>Developer Thomas Joseph has already figured that out. His company, Joseph/Design Build, purchased seven older Barton Hills homes within the last five years, and he is demolishing them to make way for modern residents he will sell. Buyers include Joseph and his partner and brother, Gabe Joseph.</p><p>"It's a beautiful neighborhood—the rolling hills, the big trees," Joseph said of Barton Hills. "It's aesthetically very pretty and interesting."</p><p>He also touted the community's good schools—Zilker Elementary or Barton Hills Elementary, O. Henry Middle and Austin High—as an incentive for buyers.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="094e58b9554e0695cb8722134d58977d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="24508" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc5NjY1MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzA2MzQzNn0.zmCQ0B4unYFAPwlU7bpqfMtGMA1Zbgr4FPw3SZeOrCM/img.jpg?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Joseph/Design Build has purchased seven older Barton Hills homes within the last five years for redevelopment. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">(Thomas Joseph)</small></p><p>There are also zoning incentives.<br/></p><p>"From a development perspective, those things aside, the reason you're seeing so many people starting to move into Barton Hills is because of the lot size and deed restrictions," Joseph said.</p><p>The average lot size in Barton Hills is 10,000 to 14,000 square feet, he said, roughly double the lot size in the Bouldin Creek area. And the majority of the neighborhood has deed restrictions dating back to the mid-1900s, limiting the lots to single-family homes. </p><p>"Having the big lots and the deed restrictions, it's creating an environment where the only real houses that make sense to develop in Barton Hills are larger single-family homes," Joseph said of the 3,000- to 5,000-square-foot structures his company is now building. "As the market shifts towards bigger homes, Barton Hills is your only option for a neighborhood that's directly south of downtown." </p><p>Although some growing families have upgraded to homes within Barton Hills, Blair said sellers have also sold to "a lot of transplants"—out-of-state or international cash buyers. </p><p>As of Nov. 10, Austin boasted 5,500 startups and tech companies and is respected as a favorable alternative to the Bay Area and New York City for companies looking to grow.</p><p>"There's been a huge influx of people who are still moving into the Austin area, despite the pandemic," Manzanilla said. "So we're seeing the median prices, whether they be in the luxury market (of homes priced at $1 million-plus) or something just below that, we're seeing those numbers increase."</p><p>Barton Hills attracts buyers interested in luxury new construction but who can't come close to paying the price tag on a five-bedroom home in other states, such as California and New Yorker, even with their multi-million dollar pocketbook, Joseph said.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="279ff6d4e1e60457ee517af4f8a00c8f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="eab67" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc5NjY3MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NDYzNjM1MH0.XBSD6MR2VPZMMu0BdZQI4bNAf1BC4cqGUYRkZcgC5Sg/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">A Zillow search for single-family homes in the Barton Hills neighborhood mostly brings up properties selling for $1 million or more. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">(Zillow)</small></p><p>He's also found that many empty-nesters who are within five years of retiring are buying homes in the neighborhood, as well as people who can work remotely.<br/></p><p>"If you come to Texas during those last five years, which are your highest earning years, you're not paying a state income tax," Joseph said. "To get ready for retirement, it's a way for people to take home more money and save more money for retirement while they're making the most money they've made in their careers."</p><p>The advantage of Austin for newcomers is not only the city's fair climate and lack of state income taxes but the liberal viewpoints that match those of New York and California, he said.</p><p>Joseph said his buyers are scattered throughout the fields of financial services, technology and energy, with half of his buyers being entrepreneurs.</p><p>"You're really not relying on one employer or one sector to fuel the development in Barton Hills, and that's a good thing," he said. The economic impact of a Tesla or Google enterprise moving into the Austin area is spread throughout Central Texas, he said, so "that no one neighborhood really sees a big jump."</p><p><strong>And who's selling?</strong> </p><p>Blair said she's recently seen more residents leave the area "because either they're aging out, the taxes have gotten a little bit too high or they're just wanting to capitalize on that price."</p><p>Since Travis County offers a homestead exemption, which caps the amount a homestead value can increase at 10% year-over-year, Barton Hills homeowners are protected from being priced out of the neighborhood as home sales skyrocket, Joseph said.</p><p>"You're actually paying what is so far below market taxes, you don't experience any of that (gentrification)," he added. "But what you do experience is that when you do go to sell, that house you paid $50,000 for now is worth $800,000."</p><p>Joseph added that the Barton Hills phenomenon is unique.</p><p>"There is no neighborhood where a 20-year-old now can buy a $50,000 house and see it go up to $800,000 over the next 20 years," he said. "It just doesn't exist."</p><p>Joseph predicts the area's good schools will maintain its path to "a bright future."</p><p>"It's kind of an ideal neighborhood," he said.</p>
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