Austin Venue Tracker: What’s Coming, What’s Confirmed, What’s Contested
Austin is adding rooms. Not many, but the ones arriving matter — they land in the capacity gaps that have shaped touring routing here for a decade. This page tracks what is actually being built, what has been announced, and what is still working its way through approvals.
Every entry carries a confidence level, because the difference between a press release and a groundbreaking is roughly two years and, sometimes, a lawsuit.
How to read this page
- Under Construction — ground has broken; steel is going up.
- Confirmed — officially announced by the operator or developer, with a date attached.
- Under Development — proceeding, but details are still moving.
- Industry Watch — reported by reliable sources, but facing real approval risk.
River Park Music Venue (AEG Presents)
Status: Under Construction | 4700 East Riverside Drive
A 4,000-capacity indoor venue, roughly 65,000 square feet, at the northwest corner of East Riverside and Crossing Place. Developed by Presidium and Partners Group as part of the 109-acre River Park mixed-use project; operated by AEG Presents, with Westfield as general contractor. Ground was broken September 24, 2025, and construction is underway.
AEG has targeted the first quarter of 2027 since announcing the project. More recently, AEG Southwest vice president Robin Phillips indicated the room could open in late February or early March 2027. The venue name, opening acts, and on-sale dates have not been announced.
Production notes: purpose-built for national touring acts, with modern production infrastructure, dedicated loading access, luxury suites and VIP seating, and artist-facing dressing rooms and green rooms. Programming is expected to run wide — country, rock, rap, blues, electronic, Latin — alongside weddings, corporate bookings, conferences, and awards shows.
Why it matters: this is the room Austin has been missing. AEG has said as much directly — chief operating officer Shawn Trell has described mid-sized venues of this scale as the future of the concert business, sitting between intimate clubs and arenas. Austin currently jumps from roughly 1,200 to 2,700-capacity rooms straight to arena scale at Moody Center. Mid-sized national tours have routed around that gap for years.
2015 East Riverside: Emo’s Out, AEG In
Status: Confirmed | 2015 East Riverside Drive
This one gets reported as a renovation. It is actually two separate stories, and conflating them causes confusion.
The building: AEG Presents takes over the lease at 2015 East Riverside on January 1, 2027, when the current lease ends. After upgrades to the sound system, green room, and backstage and guest-facing amenities — plus a full rebrand under a new name — the room reopens in early 2027 as AEG’s second Austin venue. Capacity stays at roughly 1,700. AEG has said it will begin booking ahead of the opening, with shows possible as early as February.
The brand: Emo’s is not staying and being renovated. Emo’s is moving. C3 Presents has confirmed the venue will close at the Riverside location in December 2026 and relocate to downtown Austin, where it originally lived before the 2011 move from Red River. A new address has not been announced.
Worth noting how the deal came together: Presidium, the developer behind River Park, is also the landlord at 2015 East Riverside. Phillips has described the lease opportunity as arising organically from that existing relationship.
Why it matters: AEG ends up with two rooms roughly a mile apart on East Riverside, at 1,700 and 4,000 capacity, opening within weeks of each other. That is a routing corridor, not a single venue — a promoter can now step an artist up within the same operator, in the same neighborhood. Meanwhile Emo’s re-enters the market downtown at a location still to be determined. For anyone bidding production or staffing work, that is three moving pieces, not one.
River Park Entertainment District
Status: Under Development | East Riverside
The concert venue is the first phase of a much larger redevelopment — 109 acres and roughly 10 million square feet of residential, office, hotel, restaurant, retail, and parkland, bounded by Roy G. Guerrero Colorado River Metro Park, East Riverside Drive, Pleasant Valley Road, and Country Club Creek. Project leadership has described a 10-to-20-year build-out. More than 30 acres of linear park and greenway are planned.
On light rail: the Federal Transit Administration issued a Record of Decision for Austin Light Rail on January 16, 2026, completing the environmental review and clearing the project for final design, land acquisition, and utility relocation. Phase 1 runs 9.8 miles with 15 stations, including a stretch east along Riverside Drive near Pleasant Valley Road. Service is currently estimated to begin in 2033.
That approval is not a funding commitment. Roughly half the $7.1 billion project cost — over $8 billion including interest — depends on federal grants that have not been awarded. The corridor has also drawn sustained community concern about displacement of existing businesses and residents.
Why it matters: a district of this scale generates sustained demand for live events, festivals, corporate activations, and production services. That is a decade of work, not a single opening night.
White Rocks Amphitheater / UMusic Hotel
Status: Industry Watch | 10549 Highway 71, near Bee Cave
This is not an Austin venue. The site sits on 71 acres in unincorporated Travis County near Bee Cave, overlooking roughly 10,000 acres of Hill Country preserve. It gets covered as an Austin project. It is not one, and the distinction matters for permitting, traffic, and labor.
UMusic Hospitality & Lifestyle, a Universal Music Group affiliate, announced its involvement on June 17, 2026, partnering with local developer White Rocks Entertainment, led by Chris Milam. White Rocks is owner and developer; UMusic will operate the hotel — its first in the United States, with its only other property in Madrid.
As proposed: a 10,000-seat open-air amphitheater, a 150-room hotel, 600 private residences, a 1,500-seat indoor performance venue, professional recording and content studios, a nightclub, an underground comedy club and private members club, two full-service restaurants, three bars, an on-site distillery and tasting room, and a spa and wellness center. More than 70% of the site would remain green open space, with a closed-loop water system, microgrid energy, and night-sky compliance. Residences are already on sale.
Where approval actually stands
This is the part most coverage skips, and it is why this entry sits in Industry Watch rather than Confirmed.
- On July 14, 2026, the Travis County Commissioners Court approved a resolution formally opposing the permit application, citing wastewater, strain on water sources, pollutants, land clearing, and alteration of the natural landscape.
- The TCEQ granted contested case hearing requests filed by the Save Our Springs Alliance, The Nature Conservancy, and local homeowners. The matter goes before an administrative law judge, who hears evidence from both sides and recommends approval or denial.
- The Office of Public Interest Counsel recommended referral with a maximum duration of 180 days, with mediation running alongside.
- The City of Bee Cave passed its own resolution opposing the project in March 2025, and has confirmed its position has not changed.
The permit at issue would authorize disposal of up to 120,000 gallons per day of treated wastewater. Developers project construction beginning in the first quarter of 2027 and an opening in the first quarter of 2029. Treat those dates as aspirational — by the TCEQ’s own description, contested case hearings are complex, costly, and time-consuming, and even straightforward ones take many months.
Why it matters: a 10,000-seat outdoor room would be the largest of its kind in the region and would reshape summer routing across Central Texas. But this same site previously hosted the Violet Crown proposal — a 20,000-plus-capacity version, pitched by the same developer, that was scaled back after Austin’s Environmental Commission rejected it unanimously in 2022 and the TCEQ denied a wastewater permit. The approval risk here is not theoretical. It has already happened once, at this address.
About this page
This is a living document, updated as projects move. Facts have been checked against AEG Presents and UMusic press releases, Community Impact, KXAN, KUT, KVUE, CultureMap, the Austin Monitor, the Austin American-Statesman, the Austin Business Journal, and TCEQ filings. Capacities, pricing, and dates remain subject to change — particularly for anything still in permitting.
Over time this page will expand beyond venues to cover rehearsal studios, production warehouses, convention facilities, film studios, and hotels with ballrooms — the infrastructure that actually determines whether work happens here.
Know something that belongs here? Corrections and tips are welcome.
Last updated and fact-checked: August 4, 2026.