AUSTIN.

New Airport Flying High, Expanded Center Next

Austin is flying high as the Texas state capital and a meetings magnet in the heart of the Lone Star State. The latest evidence of Austin's booming growth is the mid-1999 opening of the new Austin-Bergstrom International Airport only eight miles from downtown.

The new airport, built on the site of the former Bergstrom Air Force base, features a passenger terminal that is double the size of the former facility at the undersized Mueller International Airport. The Austin-Bergstrom Airport opened with 25 operating gates (Mueller Airport had only 16), but it has the capacity to operate 55 gates.

The new airport also features dual runways to enable simultaneous arrivals and departures, including a longer runway to accommodate nonstop overseas flights for the first time ever in Austin. The Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau reports that Austin-Bergstrom International has exceeded expectations in the first months of operation at the airport, which now includes flights to the association hubs of New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

Austin city planners also made sure its reputation as the "Live Music Capital of the World" is enhanced by including a performance stage for local musicians at the airport.

Austin's convention business is growing so fast that it is already expanding a convention center that opened in 1992. A $110 million bond package voters approved recently is funding a major expansion of the Austin Convention Center. The expansion project, scheduled for completion in 2002, includes building 130,000 additional square feet of exhibit space, a new 40,000-square-foot ballroom, and 35,000 square feet of new meeting space. Currently, the center offers a 24,000-square-foot ballroom, 129,600 square feet of column-free exhibit space, and 29 meeting rooms.

As one of America's top high-tech cities and home to headquarters of Dell Computer and Advanced Micro Devices, it is no wonder that the Austin Convention Center is regarded as one of the nation's most technologically advanced centers. The center is wired to allow transmission of video, voice, or data from virtually anywhere in the event space. The exhibit hall also has floor pockets every 30 feet that contain fiber connections to the T1 Ethernet, ISDN line, satellite uplinking, category 3 voice lines, and cable television.

Austin's hotels have been sprucing up recently as well. Among the most significant Austin hotel developments was the mid-1999 reopening of the 74-year-old Stephen F. Austin hotel after a $20 million restoration.

Barton Creek Resort, located in the heart of Texas Hill Country outside downtown Austin, also recently undertook a $47 million expansion project that added 138 guest rooms, a second championship golf course designed by Tom Fazio, and additional meeting space that will allow it to accommodate groups of up to 500 people.

With more than 100 live music venues for convention delegates to choose from, Austin's "Live Music Capital" distinction is not exaggerated. Music for every taste abounds in this hip city, especially in the 25 clubs along the Sixth Street entertainment district, or in the Warehouse District just west of the central business district.