The job and joy of the gay bar has been changing for many reasons. As the LGBTQ+ community has become more accepted in polite society, the need for an epicenter has waned as the burbs grudgingly threw out the welcome mat. The rights my generation, and the generations before, fought and died for have made great strides. Folding in the rise of the internet and app culture, and the bars are no longer the epicenter of activist or hedonistic gay life anymore. While still popular, they’re not what they once were.
Gayborhoods the world over are trying to figure out their next steps. Certainly without exception, gay neighborhoods in the developed world are not as gay as they were even 15 years ago. And in all too many instances, the gay-focused businesses do not own the land underneath them. And as urban life has expanded, these once rough-trade and tumble areas find themselves in the thick of their urban fabric, ripe for redevelopment and erasure. Rainbow crosswalks won’t stop a wrecking ball.
For years, Caven Enterprises has bought up the lands under and around their ubiquitous bars – JR’s, TMC, Village Station/Station4/S4, Sue Ellen’s and even the lot housing undie outlet Skivvies. More recent years have seen a crush of developers wanting them to sell. They’ve resisted because the price was scraping their side of Cedar springs Road.
There’s another wrinkle to Caven. Years ago, the operation turned employee-owned with workers getting shares in the company (and thus the land). It was built as a retirement plan for the type of jobs that rarely have one. I suspect the AIDS era demonstrated to Caven all too clearly that the community has to take care of its own (because the government sure wasn’t).
Enter Mike Ablon
Ablon’s desire is to retain the Cedar Springs Road streetscape while expanding the social aspects and building two 20-ish story apartment buildings on the back parking lots.
There is a goodness to the idea. The challenge is the execution.
Ablon has done some interesting work in other parts of Dallas – including the Design District. But, I’ve seen preliminary renderings for this proposal, and honestly, they’re not ready to show (and you’re not ready to see them).
As this story unfolds, the community has to have a conversation. What does the 21st century look like for Cedar Springs Road and Throckmorton Street? What’s sustainable and what will be lost? What compromises will be made?
Caven is Selling
From what’s been shared with me, Caven is going to sell. The question is to whom and what will they do. If a compromise can’t be worked out with a developer willing to retain the streetscape, the community risks winding up with another Ilume – and I doubt anyone, even if you haven’t been in S4 for years, wants that. The existing zoning is General Retail (GR) that allows for heights up to 120 feet – so a pair of 10-12 story Illume-like buildings (likely typical 7-8 story brick and stick).
By contrast, the other side of Cedar Springs, housing the Roundup Saloon and Hunky’s Hamburgers is not owned by the businesses who have occupied that side of Cedar Springs for decades. Their future is largely out of their hands. What is the community going to do now that there is a choice and parties that want the better option?
The intersection of Cedar Springs Road and Throckmorton Street was nicknamed “The Crossroads” decades ago – and it still is.
It all comes down to design and execution. They will present their fuller plans to the Oak Lawn Committee in December.
