AUSTIN -- An organization formed by Austin businesses is fighting a new development in one of the city's last industrial parks.
Members of "No Condos Here" are worried they'll be edged out as the project to create a one-of-a-kind space in South Austin begins.
In November, the Austin City Council approved rezoning for the project to be built in the original factory for Austin school buses. The project is called "St. Elmo's Market," and it will be Austin's first indoor-outdoor marketplace also featuring a hotel, condos or office spaces, a brewery and live music venue.
"A combination of specialty food shops. You can have little craft shops that do soft goods and you also have creameries and bakeries and full-out restaurants and diners so it's a combination of businesses that are complementary of each other," said Matt Spillers, St. Elmo's Market managing partner.
It's an idea similar to the Borough Market in London. However, the project's location in the St Elmo industrial area of South Austin has local businesses fighting back.
"I'm concerned about the jobs. We have a lot of good paying, highly skilled jobs here and where are these people going to go?" asked Robert Palmerton, a South Austin business owner in the St. Elmo industrial area.
They formed the website nocondoshere.com to try and keep the space they have left as Austin continues to grow.
"What I'm afraid is going to happen is they're going to come in, because this is very desirable land, and they're going to start offering people money and start pushing people on out," said Palmerton.
Spillers said they plan to work with the businesses already in the area and other Austin artisans to create what he calls a "jewel" in an otherwise industrial area of Austin.
The developers will start selecting the tenants for the St Elmo's Market starting in 2015. They'll begin construction in 2016 and they hope to be open to the public by 2018.
