Adam Torres and Dan Mages discuss The Heavens ATX.
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Show Notes:
“The Heavens” is an innovative eco-luxury retreat, event space, and wedding destination, set to address the glaring absence of upscale, sustainable accommodations near the F1/Nascar Circuit of The Americas in East Austin, Texas. In this episode, Adam Torres and Dan Mages, Cofounder & Client Relations of The Heavens ATX, explore The Heavens ATX and the current investment opportunity in the project.
About The Heavens ATX
The Heavens is a one-of-a-kind, off-grid luxury eco-resort offering dome-style villas, botanical gardens, a farm-to-table bar & cafe, highlighted by a 200k gallon all natural recreational pool with a 12′ waterfall. Inspired by Spanish Gothic and rustic accents, it offers a unique blend of luxury, sustainability, and harmonious coexistence with nature.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today’s guest is Dan Mages and he’s co founder and client relations over at The Heavens ATX, Dan, welcome to the show.
Hey, thank you, Adam, for having me. All right, Dan. So I’m excited about this for everybody that’s listening to this. So I met Dan, oh, I think it was this week or maybe no last week. I don’t know, but last week. So I was at, I was covering the Newport investor conference and the global capital network.
So Josh and Brad Turner over there did a great job, a lot of people there and it was fun and I, and I see, and I see Dan and he has this sign and he has, I’m going to stop there and Dan, tell us about, tell us about how the event was for you, the sign and just your overall impression and then, and then we’ll get further in this, but I got, I got to set the table there.
Yeah. You know, so I was just wanting to be loud and proud of, you know, the build that we’re doing in Austin. And so I handmade a sign that says you know, Talk to me about owning the sexiest spiritual resort in Texas, you know, some, which is a, a bit of a, an eye grabber. And you kind of look at everyone looking, looking at you and, you know, coming up and say, what is this, you know, spiritual, sexy resort all about?
I want to hear it. And it just, it leads to great conversations. It’s kind of a, a nice opener and, and yeah, I was there at the event and just, I think I, I was there when it opened and I was. I think the last man standing is talking to anyone and everyone, and I know that, Adam, you and I connected towards the end of the event.
You are, I think, pretty much, we closed down that event, man. We were packing up. I was like, hey, if I’m out, I’m out. That’s the way I look at it. You got me out of the studio, I’m out, I’m out, so I kind of tend things I go to. So yeah, we were definitely last man standing over there. we’ll get into the Heaven’s ATX, like we’ll definitely get into your, your concept of the eco eco luxurious boutique hotel and wellness resort in Austin, Texas.
But before we get further into that, I’m just curious about you as a person. So Dan, were you in hospitality like before launching this or like, how’d you come up with the concept? You know, I do feel like my whole life has been hospitality on one level or another, but just because I’m a hospitable human, you know, like I like making people feel comfortable and enjoying, you know, we’re on this earth together and like, why not enjoy our time, you know, so I’m all about getting out there in nature, hikes, you know, wellness, health, conversations, connection, empathy, love, you know, that I’m really about, I guess, all of that.
Wow, marveling at this experience that we have, this opportunity to live and be alive together and enjoying our time, having fun, creativity. I’m a big believer that, you know, by nature, we’re playful. You know, I think kids, when you see them, what are they doing? They’re playing. And I feel like that should never end.
You know, I feel like we do a real disservice to children by stuffing them into a school and telling them to not talk and not, you know, just take notes and listen to their teacher and you sit down and the teacher standing. I think like. the authority structures. I’m really about human connection and seeing that we’re all equals on this planet.
And we just want to treat each other with respect and dignity and, and have fun. And I don’t think the fun should ever end, and I’m all about that. And so this resort, in some sense, is a reflection of all that. Like, what would I want to do? You know, and don’t want to jump into too much, but, you know, eating organic, healthy food that we grew on site, you know, I think that’s really getting at something that’s really basic to who we are as humans as we, we eat, right?
We’re, we’re balls of energy and we need energy to continue going. And so a lot of times in our culture, in our society, the. Food is makes it bloated and overweight and, you know, it’s processed. And so we really wanted to get back to the basics and we’re growing our own food. We have seven or eight gardens producing organic produce, you know, and so we’re gonna be serving food.
we have a farm to table restaurant. And I think that’s getting back to the, to the basics. And then also you know, we’re, we’re building a 200, 000 gallon recreational pool, and this is the largest resort pool in Austin. And this goes, kind of goes back to my, my it’s, it’s absolutely fabulous. It has a 12 foot waterfall.
It’s beach entry. We’re doing Twelve cabanas that circle it and it’s aquaponics. It’s all natural. So basically there’s no chlorine. You know, the water is going to be fresh and pure just like and clear. You’re going to be able to see through it, but it’s going to be naturally filtrated through algae and plants.
And so we’re really proud of that. And it’s going to be super spectacular because you’ll be able to sit there with a mint julep from mint that we grew on site, you know, or a watermelon cooler and just have organic food and drinks. With a 12 foot waterfall in nature. So you’re unfamiliar with this area, I know it sounds we’re 20 minutes from downtown Austin.
We’re 10 minutes from the airport. But if you were to have an aerial view, it would look like Bali or Tulum, you know, it’s just trees. It’s almost a jungle. And we’re literally just 20 minutes from downtown. So it’s, an ideal place to get get away. Yeah. And so before this project, like, were you, were you always an entrepreneur or like in real estate or like, like how did that piece take?
On some level, I guess I’m always reinventing myself, you know, but I come from education you know, I’ve been teaching philosophy and religion at the community college level for about 15 years. so it’s really just the human connecting, connecting with students, talking about, you know, this is like an expression of yourself and your project and just like who you are, how you want to bring together like I, doubt and correct if I’m wrong, but like when you first started in that room, you probably might not have been thinking hospitality.
You just had this idea. Idea of maybe a community or something else. Yeah. And then it’s kind of evolved over the last 15 years. You’re right. Am I reading too far into this or am I off? No, I think, I think you’re right. You know, I think in, in the beginning I can see it germinating having met you in person and having like, now that you give me some of this piece of this story, like, wow, it’s amazing.
Go, go ahead though. Like, yeah, I, I could tell you worried about the story because I don’t want. Let’s take full credit here. My partner, Roland Barrera, it was, this was really his dream child. So he’s my business partner. He owns a restaurant here in Costa Mesa, California called West End. And West End was my favorite restaurant to attend, not only because he pays really close attention to the ingredients in the food, you know, it’s all organic, the, the, even the alcohol.
He won’t, he won’t bring in beers, you know, that are, that are made in America because we have glyphosate, which is like the. The Roundup product that they put into the wheat, you know, so he wants really clean drinks. And so in Europe they’ve banned a lot of the Roundup and the pesticides that they put in the wheat.
And so the ingredients, they’re amazing. And then he would create an ambiance at night with, with candles and low lighting and bring in a DJ. And it was, it was kind of like a lounge. It’s a place where you can connect with people, you know, talk, have great conversations. You know, the music isn’t so loud where you can’t hear each other, you know, so it’s just a really nice.
It’s a place to grab dinner and a drink with a friend. And so I was there quite often. And you know, there was a whole situation where, where basically, you know, COVID shut down as his restaurant got shut down during COVID. Him and I became really close friends. So I was there all the time. And he also saw the type of life that I was leading, which is.
Let’s go on a hike, you know, let’s jump off of a waterfall. Let’s kayak down the Colorado River. And he really was like, that’s what I want to be doing. And so we started connecting deeply on just having fun in the world. And you know, with the restaurant closed down, he had kind of been tossing ideas back and forth with his other business partner, with his cousin 20 acres that we’re building on.
And they were kind of looking at alternative dome structures, you know, something to build something extraordinary and different and beautiful and, and kind of a community you will, and that kind of snowballed and has developed over time, you know, going from like you know, a small kind of, we were going to Airbnb some domes, and now, you know, we’re looking to build the whole resort, you know, it’s like, it’s just, it has snowballed over time and yeah, it’s like, Well, now we’re building someplace where we want to hang out, you know, with the good food, with the, 000 gallon recreational pool, and then also the domes, which I haven’t really touched on yet.
We’re going to be the first eco luxury resort in the United States building with air Crete. building material we’re using. It’s absolutely phenomenal. If you get to see it, you know, it’s a really gorgeous. It’s like kind of like this. It’s a neo gothic Spanish inspired Villa that we’re building.
And, the material is really unique and very lightweight. So it looks like a heavy concrete block and we basically take Portland cement and mix it with concrete. Seventh generation dis soap, and we whip it up and it kind of becomes like a whipped cream type substance that we pour into forms, and then we create these blocks that we can build with.
So it looks like a giant heavy concrete block, but it’s really a light of the feather. Mm. It’s really an incredible substance to be building with. It’s really easy to cut so we can build the dome and then we can cut out our windows and our doors. And yeah, we’re doing, it’s, it’s really special.
All the wood that we’re using for, for the, for the windows, for the doors, for the, sinks, for the kitchenettes, they’re all from the cedar wood that we cleared to build the domes. So we’re repurposing and reusing all the wood. We have water catch systems on all the carports. We’re reusing water. We have solar panels on top of the carport.
So each villa is independently powered. Off grid and yeah, we have the aquaponics and the organic food. So we’re really creating a beautiful sanctuary, a place where people can connect as, as friends and, and become family over time. Wow. That’s, quite a vision. and I see it and I will see it one day.
I’m, I already told Jivin, I’ve never been to Austin. And I mean, that’s on my, that’s on my list of places to go. And you’re giving me an excuse here. so talk to me about like how far along you are in the project, like where it’s at right now. So we’ve raised a million dollars thus far. So we’re, we’ve got that pool over halfway built, you know, it’s built out of limestone from a local query.
It’s huge and big and we have a 13, 000 pound capstone on top where the water is going to be coming off of. we’ve done some renovations to the 3, 200 square foot ranch house that we’re converting into a restaurant. We have eight gardens and we have four domes so far. And so the structures are completed.
We’re starting to furnish and paint and interior. So we’re really, we’ve gotten some momentum. And yeah, so we’re about one year from being completed, you know, so we need some, some more investors to come in and help us finish this thing. And it’s going to be, you know, just a dream come true.
Wow, that’s, that’s interesting. So I’m thinking about like that market overall for Austin. I don’t want to assume, I mean, obviously this is a nation and global show, so I don’t want to assume that everybody listening, you know, knows about Austin or about this area. So maybe just talk about the geography as a whole.
Yeah, I mean, so we’re in the Wild West, you know, I mean, we’re in central Texas. You kind of think Texas and you think dry, you think desert, you know, you kind of have this view where it’s all flat. But Austin actually has a lot of hills. It’s very green. You know, it’s lush. There’s a river that runs through it, you know, they have lake, there’s a bunch of lakes, there’s Lake Austin.
And we’re in, technically we’re in Cedar Creek, so it’s a neighboring city, which is kind of beautiful because we’re building in the Wild West. This is where Elon Musk moved. This is why he moved his the Boring Company and SpaceX. He moved in this area because there’s no restrictions on, on anything. So we can basically build you know, scot free without the kind of red tape, you know, that you would find in Travis County.
So but the thing is we’re like right on the border So we call it east of Austin because literally across the street is Travis County And we’re we’re in Cedar Creek, which is Bastrop County So you cross county lines by crossing the street that we’re on so we’re really on the edge of Austin So it’s 20 minutes from downtown, but it is just where we are.
It’s ranch land There’s this, if you were to see an aerial of our property, it’s literally it’s just like just us, you know, and there’s like ranches are really spread out. So each ranch has a lot of land. So it’s really beautiful to develop on this land, you know, but, and, and yet you can go you know, down the highway and get to Austin and, and, and really like 10, 15 minutes you’re in downtown in 20 minutes.
So the, the location is really cool. Fantastic. And if you’re not familiar with Austin, it’s just, the place is filled with beautiful architecture. It has a lot of soul, the music, the the, the art, the architecture, big foodie scene in Austin, comedy, you know, it’s really a vibrant town.
they say it’s the music capital of the world, which we have really big plans, like beyond this, Beyond the heavens proper we plan to develop a 50 unit hotel on the frontage So if we were using the 12 domes that we’re creating, which is the heavens, you know That was going to be like the wedding party staying in the domes, you know, we’re going to have a 50 unit giant dome for the for all your wedding guests or if there was like a music festival, we’re We’re planning to also build a greco roman style amphitheater kind of hollywood bowl style, you know Into the landscape so have like an entertainment venue.
So we really have some fantastic development plans with the land that we’re building on. And so we’re really excited. And yeah, it’s it’s an amazing landscape and we’re really excited because it, you know, you want to spend a day at a pool, you know, on a rooftop in Austin, which is nice.
It’s, there’s a full shortage and often. So this pool is going to be in nature and served by the farm to table restaurant. It’s going to be. Yeah. super unique and super differentiate itself from anything that most people have ever
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experienced. Yeah, I mean it sounds amazing to me and I’m thinking about that pool, thinking about everything else and then so now as you mentioned I mean go, go a little bit further maybe into the race side of things and, and obviously, You will only go so far here, but at the end of this interview, I’m going to give you the opportunity to leave, you know, contact information, website, things like that.
So people can follow up. But I mean, share, share a little bit more about the raise and what you’re looking to accomplish with it. Yeah. we’re going to raise 2. 9 million to finish. 2. 2 would finish the construction side of things. We’re selling shares for 75, 000 a share, and we also have a land opportunity.
So if someone wanted to own the 20 acres with us, we’re offering a quarter of that 20 acres you know, basically a quarter ownership of the full 20 for 1. 25 million. And what, what kind of what kind of investors are you looking for on this thing? Like I mean, someone that catches the vision like us, you know, we, we want, we want to, we want to feel good.
It’s a family, it’s small, you know, we, right now we have about 13 investors. So it’s a small family. We’re, we’re looking for someone that drives with us as human beings and someone who sees the vision and someone who’s excited, you know, we just can’t wait to finish this thing. And, you know, and it’s, it’s going to bring so many opportunities, you know, once we, we finish this.
We, we really are excited, so it’s a matter of just feeling jiving with someone and someone that you know, brings, you know, if there’s all, all of us have something to bring to the table, right? Something unique that’s, that’s different about us, and so it’s really nice to meet someone that might have skills that are different than yours, or even if they are similar to yours and enhance that particular thing.
So really, it’s just about connecting with someone and, and, and sharing that vision together. Take care. Well, Dan it’s been great having you on the show today, learning more about the heavens ATX and the work you’re doing there and can’t wait to see it. That being said for those that are listening, whether they want to, you know, stay, stay, follow the journey get the updates and also, you know, maybe if somebody’s thinking about investing, I mean, what’s the best way for people to, to connect and to follow up.
Yeah, I would say, you know, they can go to our website, which is theheavensatx. com. Our Instagram is handleheavensatx. They can reach out to me directly at theheavensatx at gmail. So any of those ways will work. Fantastic, and we’ll put, and we’ll put the website and all that good stuff in the show notes for everybody that’s listening, so you can just click on the links and head right on over.
And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t hit that subscribe button, hey, now, this is your personal invite. Hit that subscribe button. It’s a daily show. We got all kinds of more content coming up. We don’t want you to miss anything. And if you haven’t left us a review take care of that review too, especially if you’re a long term listener.
Hey, we sure do appreciate that. And Dan again, looking forward to continue to watch this project develop. Thank you so much. And I wish you more continued success. Thanks again. Hey, I appreciate it. Thank you so much, Adam.
