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Willie invests in New Austin City Limits Studio Venture
• New theatre scheduled to open in 2010 as part of multi-million dollar development
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By
The Minx, Music Business Editor
Thursday,
7 December, 2006
Willie Nelson played the "Austin City Limits" pilot in 1974, and when the long-running public television music show unveils its new studio in 2010, he'll be a co-owner of the place.
Nelson and nephew Freddy Fletcher will be partners in the studio and nightclub project with Austin-based majority owner Stratus Properties Inc.
The venture will be part of a $225 million project that will include a 35-story tower with 200 luxury condominiums atop a 250-room W Hotel; a new home for the Austin Children's Museum; and shops and restaurants.
Unofficially dubbed Austin City Limits Studio Theater, the $15 million, 2,000-capacity venue will serve as a soundstage about 40 nights a year when KLRU's "Austin City Limits" tapes. It will transform into a musically diverse House of Blues-style club on other nights. Groundbreaking for the development is scheduled for next summer.
The new venue is expected to raise the music show's profile and provide an entertainment attraction in a venue that will hold more than five times the audience the show can accommodate in its existing cramped quarters on the University of Texas at Austin campus.
Plans call for a gallery filled with photographs of past shows and a store to sell "ACL" souvenirs and memorabilia.
Onthe Lam 2006
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