The downtown Hyatt Centric hotel at 721 Congress Ave. in Austin is slated to be auctioned at the Travis County Courthouse on June 2, adding another hospitality asset to the roster of distressed properties in the city’s core. The sale will occur alongside a separate courthouse auction for The Line Austin, another downtown hotel property, underscoring ongoing pressure in the local lodging market.
According to reporting from the Austin Business Journal, the Hyatt Centric is owned by Realberry, which was previously known as McWhinney. Realberry developed the property and now faces foreclosure after defaulting on a loan tied to the asset. The outstanding debt totals $84.6 million on a loan issued in November 2024, and the default has prompted the courthouse sale process.
The Hyatt Centric is a 31-story, 246-room hotel that opened in 2022 at the intersection of Congress Avenue and 8th Street in downtown Austin. The tower was developed on a compact 0.2-acre site, resulting in a slender profile that maximizes density on a small footprint in the central business district. Its location along Congress Avenue positions the property within one of Austin’s most active commercial corridors.
Amenities at the Hyatt Centric include an art gallery, a full-service restaurant, and a terrace bar and lounge, aimed at both hotel guests and local patrons. The property also features multiple meeting and event options, including several meeting spaces, a 24/7 fitness center, a 2,560-square-foot flexible event space, and an additional 1,400-square-foot event space in the 31st-floor penthouse. These offerings support a mix of business, group, and leisure demand.
The courthouse auction will determine the hotel’s next ownership, but details on potential bidders or expected pricing were not disclosed in the available information. The presence of both the Hyatt Centric and The Line Austin on the same courthouse docket highlights the challenges some downtown Austin hotel owners are facing in managing debt loads incurred in recent years.
The outcome of the auction process will be closely watched by market participants tracking distressed opportunities and the performance of recently delivered, amenitized hotels in urban cores. However, specific terms of the foreclosure proceedings, the identity of the lender, and any anticipated repositioning plans for the property were not provided.
