Whip In won’t be torn down for I-35 expansion, reversing earlier plans

The expansion of Interstate 35 will push out more than 100 homes and businesses in Central Austin. But some places previously slated for demolition will get to stay. Among them: the South Austin bar and convenience store Whip In.

Early plans called for demolishing Whip In and Travis Heights Wine and Spirits, a business next door in the same building. The Texas Department of Transportation is widening the highway to insert four high-occupancy vehicle lanes from Ben White Boulevard to U.S. Highway 290 East. Construction on the $4.5 billion I-35 Capital Express Central Project starts next year.

Whip In is on the I-35 frontage road southbound at Mariposa Drive, less than half a mile north of Oltorf Street. The business started in 1986 as a convenience store and gradually expanded to include a bar with 70 beers on tap, a restaurant serving freshly cooked Indian food and a stage for live music.

State Rep. Lulu Flores used to live about a five-minute walk from the Whip In. When she learned about plans to demolish the store, she was shocked.

TxDOT. A draft schematic for I-35 showed the highway’s new footprint – as indicated by the dotted blue line – going over top of Whip In.

“I went, ‘Oh my god!’ I’m very much aware of the loss of our venues and what that causes to those communities,” she said, citing her years as chair of the Austin Arts Commission. “You want to preserve as many iconic Austin venues as possible, in my opinion. I would like to see that. I’m an old-school Austinite.”

She asked TxDOT if the business could be saved. So did her predecessor, state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez.

Months later, the plans changed. The Whip In and Travis Heights Wine and Spirits would no longer be driven out. The change was mentioned in a voluminous environmental report TxDOT released in January. But the schematic maps in the draft report were not updated to reflect the changes.

Michael Minasi/KUT. Joey Franceschetti works behind the bar at Whip In. The business started as a convenience store and gradually expanded to include a bar with 70 beers on tap and a restaurant serving Indian food.

The Whip In and Travis Heights Wine and Spirits won’t emerge unscathed. The highway’s footprint will expand right up to their building, enveloping the oddly sloped parking lot off the frontage road. Another parking lot behind the building will still be accessible by Mariposa Drive.

TxDOT says early design schematics for the I-35 expansion were refined as engineers took a closer look at on-the-ground effects.

“It’s hard in an 8-mile corridor to look at every single property,” Heather Ashley-Nguyen, a director at TxDOT’s Austin District, said of the early planning. “That’s why we go out to the public. We get public feedback. We got 18,000 comments throughout the process. And at each location, we do what we can to avoid any impacts.”

At Whip In, TxDOT shifted the underground path planned for utilities from the side of the road to underneath the pavement. That will require encasing those pipes and wires in concrete.

TxDOT. The new highway plans show the I-35 footprint expanding up to the Whip In’s building, as indicated by the light-blue dotted line. The darker, thick blue line represents a 10-foot-wide sidewalk that will go in front of the Whip In.

“Those are finer details we get to once we get into further preliminary designs,” Ashley-Nguyen said.

The building is owned by 84-year-old Amrit Topiwala. His son Rohit Topiwala runs Travis Heights Wine and Spirits. The Topiwala family operated Whip In until 2017, when the business was sold to the same company that owns Quickie Pickie on 11th Street.

Rohit Topiwala said the family would not comment. He cited ongoing negotiations with TxDOT over the price of the parking lot they’re being forced to sell to the state. The operators of Whip In did not respond to requests for comment.

Nathan Bernier/KUT. The Whip In will have a front-row seat to the changes coming to I-35.

Businesses on the other side of Mariposa Drive won’t be as lucky as Whip In. Cash Corner Food Market and Jimmy’s Barbershop will be forced to relocate.

Jimmy’s Barbershop will get some extra assistance from TxDOT, including help paying rent at a comparable location for up to three and a half years, a benefit usually reserved for residential renters.

And changes are expected relatively soon for this stretch of I-35 in South Austin. Work begins next year on the project, with the first phase of construction focused from Holly Street south to Ben White Boulevard.

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.

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