AUSTIN, Texas — Another East Austin business will soon be pushed out to make room for luxury condos, according to its owner.
On Tuesday, Sean Daigle, the owner of Outer Heaven Dance Club, said the bar's landlord has declined to renew its lease, giving it six months left to operate. The lease ends in March 2025.
While Outer Heaven has only been around for a few years, Daigle is a vocal supporter of preserving "old Austin" and stated on social media that the bar's impending closure is just another example of "greed" from "rich investors."
"It is ironic in a way because it's the most 'new Austin' reason that could possibly happen and an encapsulation of why I rail on about why everything will eventually be swallowed by the people with the checkbooks," Daigle wrote. "And all we will be left with is the hollow shell that used to be Austin, Texas."
He said Outer Heaven was never a "business idea," but he instead always envisioned it as an art project "(albeit a really expensive one)." He said what he prides himself on most on is that Outer Heaven never paid for advertising – it survived purely by word-of-mouth.
"Every single person that has ever been here, has come because another actual human being, recommended it to them," Daigle wrote.
He also said he feel invested in the bar because it's a product of his own hard work, saying he saw something special in the 80-year-old building, built and painted everything inside the bar, and took every photo on Outer Heaven's Instagram page, which has more than 12,700 followers.
Daigle ended the social media post with a rallying cry for Outer Heaven's patrons, promising to spend the final months of the bar's time making great memories.
Commenters on the post shared their sadness that the bar is closing, calling the announcement "devastating" and "the worst news." Others shared their hopes that Outer Heaven will find a new home, with many vowing to help any way they can.
More changes on East 12th Street
Just down the street from the disco club, nonprofit Recovery ATX, which provides free recovery and support services to people, used to be located in the building at the end of East 12th Street.
Dave Horstmann, the board president of Recovery ATX, said the landlord – who was different from Outer Heaven's landlord, Dallas-based Eureka Holdings – said they would not be renewing the lease. Recovery ATX got an extension until May, then had to move.
At the time, the landlord was in negotiations with Eureka Holdings to buy their building. Horstmann said it's a pattern businesses owners on that street have been seeing.
"We have known that, for a number of years, even before we got here, that they'd been buying a lot of the properties between [Interstate] 35 and Airport [Boulevard], all along the 12th Street corridor, to develop the whole area," Horstmann said.
But he said the small amount of communication the developers have had with local business owners is upsetting.
"I feel like they just want what they want, especially an out-of-town company like Eureka Holdings that doesn't – they don't have an investment necessarily, [a] community investment in Austin," Horstmann said.
What comes next for Outer Heaven?
Daigle said he had been talking with developers for about a year and was under the impression they were moving toward a five-year extension. But the official notice to move came as a devastating surprise a few days ago.
Daigle was out of town when KVUE contacted him for this story, but he wrote to us that he's been disappointed in all the changes in Austin over the last several years.
"I feel like the erasure of that old Austin culture has gotten worse and worse, and I think it's important to fight against the corporate tide because that anti-corporate sentiment is why I moved here in the first place," Daigle told KVUE via text message.
He said he doesn't have a current plan for a new building or location to house Outer Heaven yet, but he also doesn't plan to close it for good.
"I think things definitely happen for a reason, so I’m not that worried that the universe will sort itself out," Daigle wrote. "Even if we just have random warehouse raves or something, I think we will be fine in the end 'cause I don’t really care about making money. I just want to enjoy what I’m doing and, hopefully, do it in a way that other people can enjoy it too."