Chamber to Buy Office Space at Hilton Austin Hotel

12-07-11 - Shonda Novak

The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce is movin' on up.

With the lease at its existing offices expiring next year, the chamber plans to move its 45 employees from 210 Barton Springs Road into new digs at downtown's Hilton Austin Hotel, 500 E. Fourth St. The chamber plans to move in March.

The chamber is purchasing a space once occupied by Faulkner USA, which built the Hilton. The sale price has not yet been revealed because the deal is not set to close until Dec. 20.

"The board was very, very excited about the prospects for this, and very excited that the chamber of commerce is going to have a permanent home," chairman Bobby Jenkins said.

The new offices have views of East Fifth, Red River and East Fourth streets.

Jenkins said the new space, which spans about 20,000 square feet, will give the chamber "room to grow — and room to meet."

It currently leases about 12,000 square feet of office space and often has to rent out rooms at area hotels and other venues to hold hundreds of meetings a year, including monthly gatherings of its 40-member board.

Jenkins said the new space will be large enough to hold meetings of more than 100 people.

Paul Bury, a past chamber chairman who headed up the search for new space, said the chamber will be able to "capture 80 to 90 percent of the off-site meetings we're having."

Bury, president of Bury+Partners, said the chamber will save "significant dollars" by not having to rent off-site meeting space. Holding the board's monthly meetings elsewhere costs as much as $15,000 a year alone, Bury said.

And owning versus leasing its space also will result in big savings, he said.

"Economically, it's an incredible deal," Bury said, noting that "all the lease space was significantly more expensive than buying the space."

Over time, the chamber will build equity, and "that's a long-term benefit," Bury said.

Bury said the chamber evaluated about 15 proposals for lease space in other buildings, as well as the one it's in now.

During the search, the former Faulkner space became available for sale, and the chamber was able to get it under contract within three or four months "for a very attractive price," Bury said.

"After we evaluated everything, the purchase of the space rose to the top," Bury said. "It's just a win, win, win," he said. "We haven't really found a negative yet. We're really excited about the opportunity."

Jenkins said Bury was instrumental in the search and the deal coming together, as were many others who volunteered their time and expertise, including Rob Golding and Alan Peters of Live Oak Gottesman; Rick Whiteley, Oxford Commercial; and Scott Lineberry, DuBois, Bryant and Campbell, LLP.