The district serves as a hub for the LGBTQ community. When plans for the high-rise recently started circulating on social media, many members of the local LGBTQ community voiced concerns that the project could force the closure of gay bars in the Warehouse District. If the historic designation moves forward after that meeting, the Planning Commission and the Austin City Council would need to consider it. Commission staffers are putting together more information to be presented at the panel’s June 1 meeting. The commission’s vote does not represent a final recommendation, though.
Granting the historic designation would deal a blow to the proposed high-rise. The designation would be based on the presence of several historic masonry façades. But the Austin Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously on Thursday, May 5 to give historic designation to the buildings that would be demolished. Those buildings are supposed to be razed to make way for a 43-story apartment tower that would incorporate a relocated Oilcan Harry’s, one of the gay bars affected by the project. Owners of two LGBTQ bars in downtown Austin’s Warehouse District are pushing back on plans to grant historic designation to the buildings where the businesses are currently housed.
