Tapestry Dance Co. prancing into new

digs, may buy building

Austin Business Journal - November 17, 2006

by Jenny Robertson

ABJ Staff

After searching for a new home for more than a year, the Tapestry Dance Company is almost ready to pack its boxes.

Acia Gray, the nonprofit's executive director, hopes that by early January the nonprofit can move into a new building -- an old racquetball club off Western Trails Boulevard that has sat vacant for eight years. Located behind Central Market near the intersection of Lamar Boulevard and U.S. 290, the building offers Tapestry 10,000 square feet of open space and hardwood floors perfect for dancing. And -- with an option to buy the site in its lease contract -- Gray hopes the South Austin building could become Tapestry's permanent home.

The group maintains a professional company with eight dancers. It also runs a dance academy with more than 450 students.

For a decade, Tapestry has operated from a 5,800-square-foot warehouse in Central Austin located on Pressler Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. The nonprofit's lease ends this fall and the building's owners are turning the site into condominiums.

The group has scoured Austin for a new location. In April, it made an offer to buy the Western Trails building, but the site was sold to a real estate firm, the Whitfield Co. By a stroke of luck, one of Tapestry's board members ran into Gail Whitfield at a real estate meeting, and the nonprofit was able to negotiate a lease on the site's

lower floor.

Gray expects the move to cost at least $200,000. Her group will fund part of that through a $100,000, low-interest loan from the city of Austin, with the remainder coming from Regions Bank.

The dance company must still divide the new space into studios and finish it out. It is currently working to gain approval on its engineering and architecture plans. Demolition could start as soon as this month.

After 13 months, Tapestry has an option to buy the building for about $1 million -- and Gray says she's already laying the groundwork to make that happen.

As for Tapestry's students, Gray says the academy initially lost a few after announcing it was moving. But since that time, the group's adult student attendance has actually grown about 15 percent, to 300. She says those students are willing to make the move to South Austin. And the site's proximity to shopping centers could prove enticing to parents who can drop off child students and run errands.

Tapestry dance company

Founded: 1989
Mission: Operates an eight-person professional dance company and an academy with 460 students, teaching jazz, ballet and tap.
New Space: Will encompass 10,000 square feet, almost double its current space. Located on Western Trails Boulevard, near the corner of Lamar Boulevard and U.S. 290.
Move date: Early January
Web site: www.tapestry.org