A demolition permit application for an East Austin building has prompted a dustup at the city.
Owner and real estate developer Eureka Holdings’ July application to demolish a century-old structure at 1500 East 12th Street last month triggered a requirement that the city Historic Landmark Commission consider its historic value before signing off on a demolition, the Austin Monitor reported.
The city’s Preservation Office recommended initiating historic zoning of the storefront at the northeast corner of East 12th and Comal Streets, but the commission voted to postpone the case to its next meeting in order to look at further evidence that the building should be preserved.
The site on the historic corner has been a German grocery and beer hall as well as a Black barbershop and music venue. It’s also near the I.Q. Hurdle House and Southgate-Lewis House, two similarly storied structures that contribute to preserving the physical history of the historic corner.
Several neighbors of the building, which has been largely unused since the 1970s, objected to its preservation, noting its history as a locus of illegal activities and saying it represents the “worst,” not the best, of East Austin.
Dallas-based Eureka Holdings, which has amassed a huge portfolio on East 12th Street and in surrounding communities, has drawn ire and caused frustration at the city, among neighbors, and with the Organization of Central East Austin Neighborhoods for failing to redevelop and neglecting its properties, code violations, unpermitted construction, failure to maintain its sites and structures, and using placeholder LP names for specific lots that “mock” the street’s legacy, OCEAN President Nate Jones said in a letter earlier this summer.
“East 12th Street needs buildings that testify to its past and invite new waves of vitality and community within them,” Jones wrote.
