Oilcan Harry's made a post on Facebook about this today:
https://www.facebook.com/OilcanHarry...01689416546374
Concerning the redevelopment of Oilcan Harry’s:
We truly appreciate the overwhelming outreach of concern and support from our community. Ensuring our 4th street family has a safe space has always been our number one goal and it’s amazing to see it paid back, especially when our community feels threatened. Rest assured, our mission is to keep 4th street alive for a long time, and if we navigate these waters correctly, we will succeed. However, in our unique case, we need you to know a historical declaration is NOT the way to do it.
The full details of our 4th street block situation are complicated and not publicly well known, but we want everyone to understand that the designation of our building as historic will result in Oilcan Harry’s being forced out of the block in less than 10 years by individuals and factors outside of our control. The building would remain, but we will have been forced out and what fills the space would not be LGBTQ owned. The block's character would completely change. We are not ok with that, and we must consider our family's survival when planning for the future.
While it can be jolting to see Austin changing, especially when it hits so close to home, the reality is in our downtown location we must work with these changing forces if our community wants to continue to have 4th street as place to call home. We have been using our biggest tool, the remaining term on our current lease, as leverage to negotiate a deal that will keep the LGBTQIA+ community on the block for more than 25 years to come. We believe our landlord has found a good development partner in Hanover, and their desire is to keep 4th street as a safe space for our community. With that essential requirement in mind and met, we have come to a basic agreement on terms which will allow for our legacy business to continue on in a blend of historic and new. The effort to declare our building as historic would take away the only leverage tool we have, and so we ask that our community NOT oppose the application at the Landmark Commission on May 4th. Oilcan Harry’s has had its doors open on 4th for over 32 years, and we believe we have a path forward with Hanover, which will keep us and our community on 4th for another 25+ years.
We thank all of you again for your outreach and support. It means to world to our entire Oilcan Harry’s family.
Scott Neal
Managing Member
Oilcan Harry's