Can Dirty Sixth Be Cleaned Up?

Photo by John Anderson

"We need to talk about a re-tenanting. That doesn't mean running people off the street. The dance clubs, beer joints, and tattoo parlors are all perfectly legal and legit businesses. But people are surprised at how few daytime businesses there are on the street. ...

"I think it's great that we have clubs down there and live music venues and whatnot. But to the extent that we can get some daytime tenants there and businesses upstairs during the day – I just think any city in America would trade us [for that]."

Based on past experience, Austinites can count on a public outcry to clean up and transform the Downtown entertainment district along East Sixth Street every decade or so. The above quotes, envisioning a better day on East Sixth between Congress Avenue and I-35, are from former Mayor Will Wynn in 2001, when he was in his first term on the City Council, talking to the Chronicle's Jordan Smith about the district's troubles: "There are college-aged panhandlers, tattooed and pierced, wearing sagging jeans and old T-shirts, sitting against the Victorian limestone fronts of the street's numerous historic buildings," Smith wrote.

Nothing came of the efforts of Wynn, who at the time owned property on East Sixth, and a loose collection of bar owners and other stakeholders more than 20 years ago, just as nothing had come of efforts 10 years before that, after the Neal M. Kocurek Austin Convention Center opened its doors, to turn the blocks around East Sixth into a conference-friendly tourism district. That was about the time the Downtown Austin Alliance was first formed, with a charge to (among other things) do something about East Sixth Street. A 2003 plan spearheaded in part by the DAA also sought to move East Sixth away from its monoculture of shot bars, but only led to the creation of a public improvement district that has yet to change the street's trajectory.

Nothing likewise ever came of a grand $20 million public works plan in 2014 that looked to narrow the street to three lanes of traffic; install wider "festival sidewalks" to encourage outdoor use; and address electrical, water, and sewer issues in the aged buildings along the strip, hoping those investments would attract a more diverse mix of businesses. That plan fizzled at the initial design phase, in part because of changing budget priorities among the mostly new members of the first 10-1 district Council in 2015. The one holdover from the prior at-large Council, Kathie Tovo, has ever since represented the central-city District 9, which includes Downtown and East Sixth Street. (She will not run for reelection in November and has endorsed Linda Guer­rero to succeed her in the D9 race.)

And so it goes. Most Austinites and many out-of-towners can tell you without much prompting what could be fixed about Dirty Sixth. Its high concentration of single-serve shot bars draws crowds of 20,000 or more on Friday and Saturday nights, when the street is closed off to traffic, creating a seven-block-long party with all the public safety issues one might expect.

Those used to be minor crimes against good order – underage drinking, brawls, petty theft. That's changed: People are now getting killed down there. A series of shootings over the past year has resulted in two deaths and more than two dozen injuries. In particular, the June 12, 2021, death of tourist Doug Kantor and the shooting of at least 13 others, allegedly by a teenager from Killeen, galvanized City Hall into adopting its Safer Sixth Street Initiative last summer. "We have to take action along Sixth Street," Tovo said last August. "If we can't effect any changes with this resolution, I'm just going to bring forward another one and another one until we get a safer situation down there."

The Safer Sixth Street plan includes specific investments in public safety and security, many of which have been accomplished at this point; at its June 9 meeting, Council agreed to buy and install 13 more high-activity location/observation (HALO) cameras on East Sixth, as well as to survey bars and clubs to see if they'd use handheld metal detectors if the city provided them. But the plan also, like its predecessors, seeks to promote more diverse, daytime, nonalcoholic uses to mix up the character of the district. And while that public conversation has gone on and on, one developer has been quietly assembling enough property to create that kind of change all by itself.

Nick Cantor speaking to press on the one-year anniversary of his brother's death (Photo by John Anderson)

What East Sixth Used to Be?

Since 2019, Dallas-based Stream Realty Partners has acquired 32 storefronts on both sides of East Sixth. It plans to find new tenants for some spaces, but in others it wants to demolish the existing structures and build new mixed-use properties that rise far above the 45 feet in height currently allowed in much of the historic district. The focal point of that strategy – with selected preservation of historic facades where needed – will be the 500 and 600 blocks of East Sixth, between Neches and Sabine, where Stream now owns all the properties on the north side.

In their presentation to the city's Historic Landmark Commission last month, company representatives painted a picture of the district alive with cafes and fine dining restaurants, retail and live music, and creative spaces frequented by workers in the offices it plans to construct. Attorney Rich­ard Suttle, who is representing Stream's Austin interests, invoked long-gone memories of "what Sixth Street used to be, where you could actually go down and have a meal and see a show, or listen to live music," suggesting that Stream's plans will allow the district to return to that more innocent time. Stream's vision also includes fewer traffic lanes and wider sidewalks on East Sixth, along with ending the street closures that allow bar congregants to mill about late into the night on weekends.

Such a change would be hard to conceive for anyone who knows Sixth Street as it's been for the last 20 years or so, a "dirty" nightlife district with a national reputation as an element of the live music capital of the world, even though live music venues make up a shrinking share of the businesses operating there. Caitlyn Ryan, Stream's senior vice president and head of its Austin office, said as she grew up in Austin during that time, she frequently wondered why the real estate in a high-profile district within the urban core of one of the most thriving cities in America were going unused in the daylight hours.

The lack of a critical mass of property owners who shared common interests or goals for redevelopment has been a major factor. So have the escalating rents and property taxes on Sixth Street buildings whose historic designations or other development restrictions have limited prospects for change and made bars the only financially viable tenants.

As Stream began acquiring properties, it focused on the 500 and 600 blocks because they have the fewest contributing structures to the Sixth Street Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places way back in 1975. From Stream's perspective, though, the only way to make an infill project work would be to increase the building heights to a maximum of 140 feet, a process the City Council finally authorized late in the evening of its marathon June 9 meeting. On the dais, Tovo amended the resolution, carried by Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison, to require consultation with the HLC, the city's Historic Pres­ervation Office, and Preservation Aus­tin before the amendment comes back for final approval.

"It's hard right now to find anybody who isn't a little frustrated with how Sixth Street looks, and disappointed about the state of the street at the moment," Ryan said, as she laid out plans for an influx of new restaurants and music venues to the area. "We presented the other owners a multitude of different options, and I think as a whole, as far as history and the ownership picture, everybody kind of understands what we're about to do, and everybody is supportive because they just want to see the street return to what it used to be."

Tovo, who had in recent months blocked multiple attempts by Suttle to include Stream's code amendment language on other Downtown-related Council resolutions, said she supports Stream's goal of bringing more business diversity to the area. Doing so, she believes, will lessen the late-night and early morning activities of young bar patrons who come to the city in search of readily accessible alcohol.

But she remains concerned about drastically impacting the historic structures in the area, regardless of the nature of the businesses occupying them. "I certainly think it should be a long-term goal of the city to support efforts to diversify the users on Sixth Street and to help create and sustain more daytime uses," she told the Chron­icle. "It is absolutely important to me that we work to encourage a diversity of uses, and to encourage more safety in a way that also respects the fact that this is a recognized historic district that enjoys certain protections.

"There are opportunities to look at changes that would allow for some of that new development to come in without altering the historic nature of that area," Tovo continued. "I'm willing to have that conversation. But it seems like a tough idea if we're [already] talking about demolishing historic buildings that are in place to make room for that redevelopment."

Members of the Historic Landmark Com­mis­sion questioned why some of the properties will have to be demolished and rebuilt to over 100 feet, arguing that structures that tall would create a visual clash with the rest of the more low-slung district. (There are already structures exceeding that height on the south side of the 600 and 700 blocks of East Sixth, housing the Texas Lottery Com­mission headquarters and the Hilton Garden Inn.) Suttle said keeping the 45-foot height limits and restricting demolition of existing properties would prevent financially attractive office and hotel uses that would make East Sixth less alcohol-dependent, as well as bringing more music to the area.

"If we can't lift that height I think we're condemning Sixth Street to another long time of more of the same," he told the HLC. "The only way you can make this work is [to] make it financially feasible for tenants to ... spend money to do their improvements. Right now, most of those properties are vacant, and when you go to a prospective tenant, the good ones are saying, 'That's a little shaky for me ...' The ones that are jumping on it are the ones we don't want any more of."

Who Pays for Safety?

Stream Realty's proposal comes amid the implementation of the Safer Sixth Street Initiative passed last summer. It's been a multipronged grab bag of safety­-related actions: pushing to remove illegal weapons confiscated from bargoers; creating a set staging area in the district for police and emergency response teams to quickly respond to "unplanned activities"; a push for better lighting; and a complete overhaul of the current HALO camera network that could cost more than $800,000. Council's action on June 9 bought cameras to fill gaps in the HALO network but stopped short of the full-replacement option.

From a programmatic side, there have been efforts to allow cafe seating and other outdoor uses for businesses in the area, as exist along Congress Avenue, which is also a National Register historic district. The city's pilot program for that use is still in the conceptual phase. In general, Tovo has argued multiple times for more city control over what the bars and clubs on East Sixth can and must do from a safety perspective. In March, her Safer Sixth Street resolution directed City Manager Spencer Cronk to prepare code language that would create an entertainment license and safety planning requirement for "places of assembly operating in the 6th Street District with operating hours after 12 a.m."

Tovo said well-meaning bar and club operators could comply by sharing their safety and communication plans and points of contact with police, fire, and emergency response teams ahead of time. "That is an idea that, I think, has real merit. It could put in place some programs and procedures that would really help communication between bar owners and our public safety officers on the street, as well as setting expectations for training. It also potentially provides a level of training to staff and to management in some of our bars on Sixth Street, so that there's improved and enhanced safety for customers, employees, as well as for those in the area around."

The March resolution calls for the draft entertainment license ordinance to come back to Council "as soon as possible," so it's not clear when establishments on Sixth Street would have to comply.

Rebecca Reynolds, president of the Music Venue Alli­ance of Austin, said she's been monitoring the license issue, but hasn't yet rallied venue owners and operators against it because it is still in the conceptual phase. Six years ago, the city stumbled through and eventually stalled a proposed revision to outdoor music venue permits, due in large part to noise mitigation issues. For Austin venues, as well as for the more numerous shot bars without live music on Sixth Street, "the question now is going to be the same as it was back then," Reynolds said, "which is: Is the city going to provide services for the license you're required to get that allows them to police you more? You have to wonder: Why now? Why did they pull this out of the trash? It seems like an attempt to paper over gunshot wounds and an attempt to address public safety that's way too little, too late. This tool wasn't even able to address sound complaints, so I fail to see how you're going to address public safety by requiring these business owners to pay for an additional license."

Reynolds pointed to a policy she's consulting on with the city of Dallas that would require licensing and safety planning for event promoters rather than venues in the Big D. That plan, which is still in the early draft phase, will also likely spell out the financial responsibilities for the public safety needs of an authorized event.

Cody Cowan, executive director of the Red River Cultural District – which intersects East Sixth right where Stream Realty wants to build to as high as 140 feet – has also criticized the entertainment license concept, saying it is unneeded. He calls out city staff for, so far, not reaching out to nightlife businesses to solicit their input on how to structure regulations so as to not burden owners of businesses that operate on low-single-digit profit margins.

"The whole thing is ridiculous. From among these independent, cash-strapped businesses, who is asking for more taxes and more licenses? What problem is it solving?" Cowan said. "This is completely baffling, especially when the city already has music venue licensing requirements that [venues] already have to follow and that the city has already failed to activate. The city already doesn't enforce the rules that are on the books for venues and musicians. We already know we have to self-regulate, because a wild Wild West scenario doesn't work in a growing metropolis."

North side of the 600 block of Sixth, between Red River and Sabine; Stream Realty owns all of these properties (Photo by John Anderson)

"Its Own Little Animal"

The idea of transforming East Sixth into something more resembling the Second Street District west of Congress Avenue – which includes City Hall, the W Hotel, the Moody Theater, 3ten ACL Live club venues within the latter, the Violet Crown Cinema, and a bunch of restaurants – has raised questions and eyebrows among local leaders and cultural observers. A look at the makeup of the weekend clientele shows East Sixth's crowds are among the most racially and culturally (and likely economically) diverse that one might see in nightlife areas within the city limits.

Trading out all or part of that audience would in theory disperse crowds of party­-hungry young adults throughout the city, at the cost of what has become an Austin institution, even if it's one that in recent years has become soiled by violence and vice. After a Downtown Commission meeting that featured an update on efforts to lessen the number of shot bars on Sixth Street, Commissioner Nelly Paulina Ramirez expressed skepticism that the city would have much luck influencing private property owners.

And if there is any kind of coordinated effort to "change Sixth Street," she said, community groups on both sides of the highway should be able to weigh in on how that change takes place. "The question is, how do you walk back what is qualified as an entertainment district, which is in fact a drinking district?" she said. "There's a lot of desire for it to be something like what people think of as a cultural district. They want it to be more like the vibe of Congress and Eighth" – near the Paramount and Stateside theaters and the Hideout – "so they can catch a comedy show, a film, or see some theatre. There is no way to replace [East Sixth's] tradition without replacing the liquor licenses, and where do they go?"

Musicians similarly have questions and opinions about remaking Sixth Street. Many performers who've come up in Austin saw playing in the district as a milestone, on the way to attaining legitimacy with promoters at clubs elsewhere in the city. Rapper Kydd Jones, now in his early 30s, recalled spending his teen years learning the hard lessons that most of the bars and customers on the street weren't hospitable to live music and were primarily focused on keeping the beers and shots flowing.

Jones said he's in favor of any plans that would lessen the alcohol-first mentality of the area, but he also hopes it can retain some of the character built up over its recent decades serving millions of visitors. "If we can do anything to support music and the live music capital reputation there outside of the bars, that would be dope. At the same time I think we should try to keep the history there, because it's important also; you don't want to just erase that," he said. "It's a historic zone and if you change Sixth Street, it would kind of destroy our city in a way. The culture of that street seems like it's been set in stone since Austin was a place."

The actual history preserved by the historic district is that of East Sixth as the young city's wholesale market district (built largely by Latino and Lebanese proprietors), but its current nightlife uses themselves go back several generations.

Ryan said she's in frequent contact with merchants, property owners, music organizations, and community groups to discuss Stream's plans for the district, with the goal of finding the right balance for what it will become. "Sixth Street doesn't have a bar problem. It has a ratio problem," she said. "Now it's just 90% bars and only 10% restaurants; if we can even that out, maybe add some more restaurants down there, some more live music concepts, and some more reasons for people to show up there ... during the day, then we'll consider ourselves successful."

Across the street from Stream's planned mixed-use project, at Sixth and Red River, Esther's Follies proprietor Shannon Sed­wick has been watching Sixth Street's crowds and changes and happenings since before she and partner Michael Shelton bought their building in 1990. Sedwick said she gave Ryan a quick "no" in response to Stream's offer to buy her building more than three years ago. She sees the company's plans as a misguided attempt to disrupt Dirty Sixth's useful function as a place where nightlife entrepreneurs can get their start within a predictable and reliable marketplace and ecosystem.

"Sixth Street has always been the ugly stepchild, but it's always been a historic district where people could start their own thing with minimal expenses, and all the other businesses surrounding in the area would have their back," she said. "I don't think they'll be able to stop people from milling about in the street, because that's always just been the way it is down there. You're working against the tide if you try to make Sixth Street into what it seems like they want it to be. It is its own little animal."

Map courtesy of Stream Realty Partners

Who Owns the Block?

Since 2019 Stream Realty has, through vehicles with names like "SRPF B/Pecan Street II," acquired properties on both sides of Sixth Street, shown in orange on this map. Most of these are at the eastern end of the district, between Neches Street and I-35 (the 500, 600, and 700 blocks). Stream owns everything on the north side of the 500 and 600 blocks; the land alone in this stretch (approximately 1.62 acres) is valued by the Travis Central Appraisal District at just shy of $20 million, or about $275 per square foot. The existing buildings on those properties, which add up to a bit shy of 89,000 square feet, are valued at $6.3 million, or about $70 per square foot. Most of them have been substantially renovated over the years, although their facades may still merit historic preservation. Since 2012, the improvements have doubled in value while the land has tripled.