AUSTIN – (Realty News Report) – Host Hotels & Resorts has completed an extensive renovation at the Hyatt Regency Austin, adding more luster to the upswing blossoming on the south side of Lady Bird Lake, which flows through Downtown Austin.
Hyatt Regency Austin, which opened in 1982, had been separated by water from a lot of the downtown high-rise growth occurring on the north side of the lake, which is actually a small, narrow reservoir created by a dam on the Colorado River.
The price tag of the Hyatt renovation was not disclosed, but its scope was extensive with remakes of guest rooms, meeting space, restaurants and bars, lobby and pool deck.
“Virtually every square inch of the interior of this property has been touched by this transformation,” said Jeff Donahoe, general manager of the 16-story hotel.
The room count was also expanded a bit to 450 guest rooms by completing some tweaks, such as carving up the formerly massive Presidential suite. So, the Hyatt now has 450 guest rooms, up a tick from 448 rooms. Staff offices were relocated to create space for a new, glass-walled, revenue-generating meeting room overlooking the water front. After paying $161 million in cash to buy the hotel in March 2021, Host Hotels & Resorts – the largest publicly-traded real estate investment trust focused on lodging – waited almost five years after buying it to bring the Hyatt’s redo to fruition.
The Hyatt renovation adds one more point of light to the south side of Lady Bird Lake.
In 2019, Austin developer Perry Lorenz, who built downtown Austin’s 58-story The Independent residential tower, told a group of journalists that property on the south side of the lake did not compare favorably to opportunities on the north side. That was the downtown real estate narrative at the time. Watching the skyline grow proved it.
In the post-Covid era, the tides turned. Property on the south side of the lake attracted developer interest.
In 2022, Stream Realty Partners completed its RiverSouth office tower, a 15-story project on First Street, just a block away from the Hyatt. Anchored by the Baker Botts law firm, the 372,000-SF building reached 98% occupancy within 18 months after completion – a swift lease-up by Stream.
Another new development by The Related Companies, a New York firm led by Stephen Ross, is underway. Related just started construction on an 18-story residential tower called One Lady Bird Lake. The project is immediately adjacent to the Hyatt, taking up space that had been used for Vonlane bus parking for the hotel.
Initially envisioned as an office tower, Related’s latest plans for One Lady Bird Lake call for 576,000 SF of residential space divided into rental units and condos for sale, plus 10,415 SF of restaurant space, and 3,200 SF of retail space, according to the Austin Business Journal. Architecture is by Kohn Pedersen Fox. Completion is expected in 2028, or late 2027.
A few blocks farther away, Austin has also seen a significant amount of new development and retail along South Congress Avenue in recent years, including the new, sustainable, mass-timber Hotel Magdalena designed by Lake Flato architects.
About a block from the Hyatt, plans are in the works for the redevelopment of the former Austin American-Statesman campus — a 19-acre tract envisioned as a place with as many as six high-rise residential or office towers, a hotel, retail, and green space along the lake. Sadly, the newspaper has moved to the suburbs, leaving behind one of the world’s most beautiful newsrooms where journalists labored with a cool, leafy view of the lake and the shoreline trail.
It all adds up to quite a large growth mushroom south of the downtown lake where the only truly exciting thing used to be the old Armadillo World Headquarters – a legendary 1970s launch pad for Austin’s music scene.
With Related’s construction equipment rumbling outside the Hyatt and all the shine of new surfaces inside the hotel, the Hyatt’s general manager was pumped up as he discussed the thorough hotel redo that was unveiled recently. New restaurants with new menus were open. A new 50-foot, indoor-outdoor bar a few feet from the lake’s shore was innovative in its positioning. The hotel’s 45,000 SF of meeting space is now in prime condition. Guest rooms, with interior design by Ealain Studios, were all good-to-go.
“This transformation marks our new era for this hotel,” Donahoe said. “We recognize that Austin is now a global hub for business, for creativity, and for innovation. This is our answer to all of that.”
With its water front location, the Hyatt had provided a prime vantage point for viewing a decade of fast-paced construction of downtown residential towers and tech-firm skyscrapers on the north side of the lake, including the 35-story Pelli Clarke Pelli-designed tower developed for Google by Trammell Crow.
The Hyatt is no longer an onlooker. As 2026 begins, the Hyatt Regency Austin is part of The Now. The south side of the city’s urban lake is ready for the future.
Historical Fact: Actor Matthew McConaughey, a student at the University of Texas, scored his big breakthrough at the Hyatt Austin. McConaughey was hanging out at the bar on the 17th floor of the Hyatt, the Texas actor recounts in his bestselling book: “Greenlights.” *
With plenty of free drinks going around, McConaughey was laughing it up with a guy at the bar who turned out to be casting director for Richard Linklater’s 1993 film, Dazed and Confused. McConaughey and the casting director had two things in common – they both loved golf and vodka & tonic cocktails. When the night was over the casting director handed McConaughey a business card. A few days later, the young actor auditioned at a filming location in North Austin. McConaughey delivered three words expertly: “Alright, alright, alright.” A career was born.
*Footnote: As told on page 104 of McConaughey’s Greenlights memoir.
Dec. 25, 2025 Realty News Report Copyright 2025
Hyatt images Courtesy: Hyatt Regency Austin
Photo credit: One Lady Bird Lake construction site by Realty News Report. Copyright 2025.
File: Lessons Learned: The Transformation of a Hyatt Regency, Austin, Lady Bird Lake