Popular Eastside bar Outer Heaven Disco Club will close next year, owner Sean Daigle announced last week. The venue at 1808 E. 12th has about six months left to operate.
Daigle told the Chronicle that his property managers told him late last year they planned to offer Outer Heaven a five-year lease extension, but rescinded the offer last week. “I think ’cause they figured out how to rezone the space,” he speculated via DM; announcing the news on Instagram, he said the company planned to tear the building down to build luxury condos. Daigle names Eureka Multifamily Group as his property managers; they didn’t answer our requests for comment or confirmation of these plans.
“It is ironic in a way because it is 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 checkbooks,” the owner wrote. “And all we will be left with is the hollow shell that used to be Austin, Texas.”
Daigle took over the lease for the 12th and Chicon venue, formerly Dozen Street, during the pandemic, hoping to create “a bar that’s like if Willy Wonka smoked crack at Studio 54,” as he once put it. He paid rent and renovated the property throughout lockdown and debuted Outer Heaven in May 2021.
The bar’s primary DJ, also a photographer, Daigle boasts online that he runs “the only bar in Austin built without any rich investors and that pays our staff more than the $2.13 slave wage Texas says is legal for service workers.” He told the Chronicle he achieves this by ditching the usual bar manager model and instead delegating duties among his staff, “which both helped alleviate the stress and made the staff happy ’cause they would get paid much more.” He says his estimated 10 employees make between $10 and $20 an hour based on seniority.
“I think I made everyone more loyal too ’cause they know I don’t really give a shit about maximizing the bar’s profits and would rather share ’em,” Daigle says. “My current bar manager makes more money than me a month at this point which I think is kinda funny (she also works super hard so she deserves it more than I do).”
Due to the rising cost of real estate, Daigle isn’t sure if he’ll move Outer Heaven to a new location, but says the dance club will pop up at parties.
Skinny’s Off Track Bar, Outer Heaven’s neighbor at 1806 E. 12th, told the Chronicle they had a “long term lease and no plans of closing at this time,” while Full Circle Bar, located on the other side of the disco at 1810 E. 12th, did not respond to the Chronicle’s request for comment.
This article appears in October 11 • 2024.