Restauranteurs Behind Paperboy Buy Historic East Austin Hotel

An East Austin hotel that has been closed for 50 years is set for redevelopment by the business partners behind the restaurants Paperboy and Loudmouth Pizza.

Robert Brown and Ryan Harms of Daybreak Hospitality bought the site of the former Deluxe Hotel, established in the 1940s and shuttered in 1975, the Austin Business Journal reported. They bought the hotel at 1101 Navasota Street and the adjacent lot at 1105 Navasota Street from Jo Baylor. The location is near their restaurants.

The buyers envision a hotel with some condominium units. The old hotel will be torn down to make way for a five-story structure. Daybreak Hospitality is still seeking capital and development partners for the project.

Questions remain about the timeline and further details of the project, including the number of hotel keys and condos. An architecture firm offices in the location, and it would be at least two years before the building could be demolished.

Clayton Korte is working on the conceptual planning and branding of the development. Kempt Studio, the firm that designed Daybreak Hospitality’s restaurants, will also design the hotel. The buyers tapped Lucky Find Hospitality to guide the hotel operations, and it is working with Civilitude to secure engineering and other permits.

The seller said it was important to her that the legacy of the hotel be carried into its next iteration. Located in historically Black East Austin, the hotel served many touring musicians, such as the Bobby Blue Bland, B.B. King, Etta James, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, the Five Royales, Little Willie Jones and Big Mama Thornton, according to city documents.

Brown and Harms have seen prior success in their East Austin locations. Paperboy began as a food truck in the area, and as a brick and mortar sees lines out the door at the consistently busy brunch spot. They opened a second location of Paperboy on South Lamar Boulevard this year. — Eric Weilbacher