 "Photo: Matty Greene")
Business at the Barton Springs Road Austin Java has picked up after the local restaurant saw a dip in sales following comments made by Austin musician Marcia Ball.
During last Wednesday's Blues on the Green concert at Zilker Park, Ball told an audience of 6,000 that she was boycotting the restaurant for its connection with the removal of several dozen native pecan trees.
She said she was upset that the Austin Java owner, who is one of the developers of a new condominium project, allowed the trees to be removed to make room for the development.
Rick Engel, the owner and developer, said Ball's "spiteful and hurtful" comments caused unusually slow business on Thursday, the day following the concert, but that business has picked up again.
Engel and other developers of the condominium agreed to discuss planting replacement trees on city park land, according to a statement released by Larry Warshaw, the head developer of the project.
Engel and Warshaw released letters this weekend in response to Ball's comments to disclose their side of the story.
Engel, who also owns Uncle Billy's Barbecue on Barton Springs Road, said in his letter he became a developer of the project to save his businesses from being shut down.
Two years ago, Engel discovered that the owner of the land along Barton Springs Road was going to sell and level the strip of restaurants on the road to build a 400-foot-tall condominium.
Engel immediately became a developer on the project to save his restaurants and push for a shorter building, he said.
"I only did this to save Austin Java and Uncle Billy's," Engel said. "Without that, the restaurants would be gone, and the area would be a completely different place."
In the letter, Engel said the developers made an "aggressive plan to preserve as many native pecans on the site as possible," which included designing the project around several of the oldest and largest native pecan trees on the property. The developers also plan to move several of the smaller pecan trees to the park across the street, which Engel said will cost $250,000.
Engel also said the developers did not break city ordinances in removing the trees. Many of the 23 trees that were cut down had reached their 100-year life span, the time at which city ordinance allows trees to be cut down, he said. Warshaw's letter, which included the project's statistics, said five other trees will be relocated to a park across the street.
Engel said he has not personally spoken with Ball since the letter was sent out. Ball was not available for comment by press time.
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