Austin, TX
West Fourth and Colorado Tower Plans a Place for Austin’s Oldest Gay Bar
A view of the Hanover Firm residential tower challenge and its rebuilt warehouse facades on Fourth Road, together with the brand new dwelling of Oilcan Harry’s. Picture: Hanover Firm / SCB
A deal between Houston-based multifamily developer Hanover Firm and downtown property house owners alongside the administration of Austin’s oldest homosexual bar and dance membership Oilcan Harry’s would elevate an roughly 40-story, 400-unit residence tower on the nook of West Fourth and Colorado Road — a proposal that’s already drawn vital consideration from the town’s LGBT neighborhood after showing on the agenda of the Historic Landmark Fee’s April 11 assembly, because of the tower’s footprint requiring the demolition of a number of buildings contained in the Warehouse District.
The settlement in query between Hanover, proprietor Michael Girard of the properties between 201 and 213 West Fourth Road, and the operators of Oilcan Harry’s would enable the demolition of the buildings atop the quarter-block — containing spots like Oilcan Harry’s, Neon Grotto, and Coconut Membership together with the now-shuttered bar Sellers Underground — with the masonry facades of a number of warehouse-style constructions rebuilt as a part of the brand new tower’s street-level design.
However not like different initiatives integrating structural parts of an previous enterprise in a brand new constructing, the Hanover design from Chicago-based architects Solomon Cordwell Buenz additionally preserves the operations of Oilcan Harry’s, offering a part of the tower’s 10,000 sq. ft of ground-level retail house for a brand new membership that’s roughly the identical measurement as the prevailing enterprise. The tower may also embrace a brand new restaurant and bar idea situated on the nook, with the constructing’s street-level footprint pulled again from the sidewalk making a coated outside house.
A rendering of the tower’s ground-level look on the nook of West Fourth and Colorado Streets, with the reconstructed warehouse facades seen on the fitting. As seen right here, Oilcan Harry’s would proceed to function out of the tower’s base with its present facade in place, with adjoining membership Rain unaffected by the brand new improvement. Picture: Hanover Firm / SCB
Hanover improvement accomplice David Ott says the purpose of the plan is so as to add density and housing with out disturbing the way forward for Oilcan Harry’s, which opened right here in 1990 — in truth, Hanover goals to supply the enterprise a longer-term lease settlement than its present deal, reportedly at a lease beneath market-rate — with the expectation that the membership can proceed to function on this location for many years, at the same time as single-story meals and beverage operations are more and more priced out of downtown by rising land values and property taxes. Ott and Girard consider the tower plan might present different builders with a mannequin for easy methods to work with present companies and maximize useful land’s highest and greatest use with out erasing present cultural landmarks.
Girard mentioned the opposite companies on the block, together with Neon Grotto and Coconut Membership, have been conscious of the challenge after they moved in earlier than the pandemic.
“These companies went in proper earlier than the pandemic, with the understanding that this was being labored on. So that they’re at present month-to-month leases and have been for have been for a time frame. If we transfer this ahead, we’re gonna go to work on looking for a substitute website additionally,” Girard defined.
— KXAN, April 11, 2022
Whereas the looks of the constructing’s tower part continues to be within the design section, its builders at Hanover count on the constructing to rise roughly 450 ft, comparable in massing however barely taller than the 300 Colorado workplace tower instantly behind it to the south. The T1, T2, and T3 designations point out the constructing’s three tiers of residential models, with bigger penthouse-style residences deliberate on the high. Picture: Hanover Firm / SCB
Whereas the tower is predicted to be roughly 450 ft tall, the present focus from the builders is on the ground-level design of the challenge, with its first look on the Historic Landmark Fee beginning the dialogue of demolition of the prevailing buildings on the website — which doubtless don’t qualify for historic standing regardless of their age, resulting from intensive modification by numerous tenants over time. Although Hanover’s plan would demolish the buildings and solely reconstruct the facades, the numerous layers of paint on the unique brickwork could be eliminated, offering an look extra correct to the unique warehouse constructions.
With current debate on the fee over the attainable demolition of close by homosexual bar the Iron Bear, there’s vital concern from each the town’s LGBT neighborhood and preservation-minded Austinites that new improvement might probably diminish cultural establishments housed downtown in buildings which may not qualify for conventional historic landmark standing, which is the case for a lot of the constructions within the Warehouse District — however since Hanover’s plan additionally goals to protect essentially the most iconic enterprise working at this nook, it’s unclear how the tower challenge and its demolition proposal will likely be acquired. After the April 11 briefing to the fee’s architectural evaluation committee, the demolition proposal is predicted to look for consideration on the fee’s common assembly on Could 4.