“We have all seen iconic places that we love go away,” said Drenner, noting that the Iron Bear’s lease was signed in 2019. “However, what’s even more tenuous is to suggest that this history satisfies the historical association criteria.” “Architecturally, it’s a very tenuous relationship to what was there in the past,” Drenner said.
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He pointed out that it isn’t known what the original 1919 building looked like, but the doors and windows have been altered and the brick irreversibly painted. Steve Drenner of the Drenner Group spoke on behalf of the building’s owner, who would like to demolish the building.
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“To eventually destroy all of (the warehouses) for giant high-rises, full of people living like the Borg, with no place to go that is human-scale and human-interest is not where we want to take downtown.” We’ve basically been nipping away at the edges of identified historic resources … and we finally struck a nerve,” he said. “To my knowledge, nothing has happened to preserve the Fourth Street warehouse district.
He noted that the only way that the warehouse district could be preserved as a historic district was if the landowners initiated the effort on their own and that Sixth Street and Congress Avenue could suffer similar fates, as they are not local historic districts either. Koch said he was surprised recently to see historic preservation of the warehouse district featured in the city’s Downtown Plan, given the district’s rapid erosion. “We kind of have to take it to the next level,” Koch said. He referenced a new proposal that is threatening the existence of the gay bars lining Fourth Street and pointed to the upcoming demolition of 301 San Jacinto, which he said is the downtown warehouse most deserving of landmarking on its own. In making his motion, Koch noted that warehouse buildings have been “dropping like flies” downtown, due to the fact that they often lacked historic significance that would justify preservation. Commissioner Kevin Koch, who made the motion, noted that the warehouse district has been home to LGBTQ bars for nearly 50 years. “If they can displace one queer bar, they’re going to displace another and another and another and another and we’re going to be pushed out like we have been for generations, for years,” he said.Ĭommissioners voted unanimously to initiate historic zoning based on the building’s historic associations, architectural significance and community value. Over the past month he said they had encountered a dispiriting level of apathy from a community “used to being pushed around” and not heard by politicians. James Walker, a research therapist at Fort Hood, said he had been working with fellow Iron Bear patron Ace Villanueva to get the word out about the bar’s struggles. “Where does the destruction of Austin’s heart stop? I do not give myself to hyperbole or exaggeration when I say places such as these truly save lives.”ĭr. Places that make Austin unique are being destroyed by big business interests, with their endless dollars for lobbying and buying out small businesses to put up monolithic towers that are as culturally antithetical to the spirit of Austin as they are tall,” he said. “As we lose these spaces, we’re seeing the coming death of Austin’s cultural heart. He told the commission that the bar was a safe space that accepts all with open arms. Though that designation might save the building, it will ultimately have to be approved by a supermajority of City Council should the landmark commission vote to recommend historic zoning at its May 4 meeting.Īidan Barriga, who is an employee of the Iron Bear, spoke against the demolition on behalf of the bar’s staff.
With its fate far from certain, the proposed demolition of the warehouse that is home to Austin’s Iron Bear has been put on hold after the city’s Historic Landmark Commission initiated historic zoning on the structure.Īn outpouring of support for the beloved LGBTQ bar moved commissioners to move forward with designating the building at 301 W.