Built in 1935, the Don-Mar Motor Court is a piece of Austin's past, and sign of its future. It will be torn down to make room for a new multimillion-dollar development.
"It could be anything from an auto repair facility, offices, or mixed-use project with retail on the lower level and residential above," Richard Ryon of Investors Alliance, Inc. said.
Plenty of lots around Austin have a similar story, like the development at Lamar and Guadalupe in Cental Austin. It will be a mixed-use project with townhomes, apartments and retail.
"Austin's a very attractive city," Ryon said. "We have the lakes, the Hill Country, the State Capitol, UT. It's a win win."
"The numbers tell all. When you're doing better numbers than you were in 2000, you know you're doing well," Hudson's on the Bend owner Jeff Blank said. "Our restaurant is more of a higher-end restaurant, which is always the first to go. People will dine out but they'll dine out at less expensive restaurants. So we feel it immediately. But the nice part is we start to come back a little bit quicker. For the last six months we've been realizing numbers that are back to the year 2000."
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Economy on the upswing
Austin's economy is making a comback if retail, real estate and restaurants are any indication.
 
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Part of the good news stems from $13 million local businesses gave in order to market the Austin area.
"Part of what we're seeing is a result of our program called Opportunity Austin, which is to create 72,000 net new jobs in the five-county region over a five-year period. We're in the second year of that program," Kirk Watson of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce said.
In fact, 16,000 more jobs were added in 2004 than the previous year. This means real estate is also enjoying the economic upswing.
"We have far south. We have a lot of central activity. We even have an Elgin market. Even there, everything seems to be very strong. Manor is very strong. Markets that traditionally have not enjoyed the improvements, they're seeing them as well," realtor David Erard of Erard & Associates, said.
The proof is in the sales. Single family homes are up 34 percent from last year. The Comptroller's Office said retail sales are up about 12 percent from last year.
"People still seem to be spending money and they're definitely spending more than that were two or three years ago," Erard said.
This makes people optimistic that the stability of this economy isn't riding on a bubble that could bust.
