Several food trailers downtown were told Tuesday night they have to move by June 10, to make way for a J.W. Marriott hotel that will be built there.
“It’s upsetting,” said Martin Berson, co-owner of Snap Kitchen, one of the food vendors on the site at Congress Avenue and Second Street. “My hope is that we’re not going to have to move out of downtown.” Berson says he’s been offered lots in north and south Austin, but is trying to find another spot downtown.
Other food vendors at the site include Padika Coffee, Kebabalicious, Turf ‘n’ Surf Poboys, and Chi’Lantro.
As KUT News reported last month, food trailer courts across Austin are being shut down as post-recession construction development picks up. The East Side Drive-In on East Sixth Street will close at the end of May. The days are numbered for food trailer courts at East Sixth and Waller Streets and the 1600 block of South Congress. Hotels were planned for both lots in the late-2000s, but those plans were shelved during the economic downturn. Now they’re on track again too.
The J.W. Marriott is scheduled to open in 2015. The luxury hotel will be 30 stories tall and have more than 1,000 rooms. It’s one of three new hotels planned for downtown Austin.
