New restaurants to pave the way for Stream Realty’s Sixth Street revitalization

The real estate group looking to revitalize the Sixth Street entertainment district just west of Interstate 35 is betting that a wave of new restaurants will be the initial difference-maker in the move to gradually strip the area of its “Dirty Sixth” reputation.

Paul Bodenman, senior vice president of investments at Stream Realty, told the Austin Monitor the company has been actively courting potential restaurateurs to fill some of the more than 30 parcels it now owns on East Sixth Street. At the same time, Stream is also preparing for the start of facade improvement work on some of its properties to begin in April. While retail is still a goal for some of the other ground-floor spaces in addition to restaurants, Bodenman said there’s no hard decision or plan for adding office, hotel or residential use to some of the properties where the company has the ability to build up to 140 feet.

“Our opinion is food and beverage is more complementary to what is currently on Sixth Street. That obviously helps people come down the street in general,” he said. “The experience that somebody has going to a great restaurant and then being able to go see a show or go to the bar down the street or go to East Sixth Street is more impactful from an experience and a perception change than maybe going just to a retail store and then leaving the street. So we want people to come out in various times of day, and we want people to experience the street over several hours and have a really good time. We think that bringing in restaurants is the way to do that initially.”

The focus on restaurants follows the conventional wisdom that Sixth Street needs to be more “activated” during the daytime and early evening hours, rather than being seen almost entirely as a home to shot bars and nightclubs. Stream’s leadership has in recent years supported live music as another attraction to bring visitors to the district, though Bodenman said there’s a mix of ideas in play, including farmers markets and the addition of outdoor cafes on potentially expanded sidewalks that are under consideration.

“This is an ever-evolving, organic process, but we would absolutely love to bring a farmers market back to Sixth Street. That would be a really great way to experience the neighborhood on a Saturday or Sunday morning and early afternoon,” he said. “We’re also looking at certain kinds of events and things like that to really activate the street outside of just visiting the restaurants or bars.”

In search of foot traffic

In previous media reports, Stream Realty leaders have disclosed investing between $500 million and $750 million in the Sixth Street district, with the belief that the vision of a single, well-financed owner could tame and reimagine the street that has been a growing public safety concern in recent years.

Early plans called for a hotel and office building on the company’s properties along the north side of the street flanking Red River Street, though the recent softness in the local office market opened the company to the possibility of residential use in the taller buildings that Stream may construct. Those uses would bring more all-hours customers to the area for the restaurants and retail locations that eventually could open.

Asked about the plans to bring enough foot traffic to new restaurants without those built-in customers, Bodenman said, “We do feel confident that, in general, downtown has a very significant resident, visitor and even office population. So we feel very optimistic that this street can support a number of restaurants.”

There are other residential projects planned for the area to potentially supply customers of hospitality and retail businesses, with the Grant Plaza offices due to be converted into more than 250 residences. Farther north, the city is back to the drawing board for deciding how to redevelop the former HealthSouth properties, with an array of scenarios bringing up to several hundred units to the site.

Hannah Rangel, vice president of built environment for the Downtown Austin Alliance, said the change in capital markets and lowered demand for office space makes the shift to restaurants and “getting the lights on” a wise choice for Stream.

“From what we understand, they’re focused on facade improvements and streetscape improvements and re-tenanting … with a focus on restaurants and 18 hours of programming. We are excited for that because we think that activation is critical. It’s a critical time for activation on Sixth Street,” she said. “We’ve heard that some of their plans include restaurant programs that are sort of more like breakfast, lunch and dinner – as opposed to bar programs in the later evening.”

Rangel said the sense of activity that could come from opening multiple new restaurants in quick succession will likely be essential to dampening the safety concerns that have lingered over the area since a mass shooting in 2021 that killed a tourist and injured a dozen others.

“There’s a lack of foot traffic because there’s a lack of a sense of safety,” she said. “What they’re doing is difficult because you need tenants to all come at once, and there needs to be a meaningful shift in the sense of safety. Outside of additional activations, just by virtue of getting currently vacant storefronts occupied and a perception shift around the safety of East Sixth Street, I think that will bring the foot traffic and drive demand. Sixth Street and Red River are the foundations of the brand of Austin.”

Placemaking and partnerships

A plus for the company’s revival efforts are the distinct building footprints and architecture throughout the district, which will create interior settings that will be difficult to match anywhere else in Austin.

Paul Clayton, principal with the Clayton Korte architecture firm that is working with Stream on its design and building plans, said the late 19th-century and early 20th-century masonry structures with Victorian detailing provide “great bones” to convert into new restaurants.

“The nature of the masonry structure has allowed them to survive through all the years of use and abuse and bar usage, which is great. … The bones are there because it was a prominent street in Austin’s history,” he said. “There’s plenty of photographic history that’s been recorded that we can research, and we can replicate some of the detail that’s there, and that’s kind of the tack that we’ve taken. We’re using details and colors that are historically appropriate and in the areas where there are no buildings, we’ve done an interpretation of a building that is compatible with the historic district.”

Approvals granted last year by the Historic Landmark Commission and the increase in maximum building height granted by City Council in 2022 give Stream a clear path to move forward with work it deems necessary on the facades and other structural elements.

Also important to the district’s success are the partnerships Bodenman and other Stream leaders plan to build with neighboring businesses, including the music venues, bars and restaurants in the nearby Red River Cultural District where there has been some concern that the general uplift of the area could increase rents and price some businesses out of existence.

Bodenman said the company and RRCD leaders are in talks about how the two districts can coexist, noting, “It’s too early for us to know what that ultimately looks like.”

“We view Red River as an incredibly complementary and really integral part of this part of downtown. I don’t think Sixth Street will operate as well on its own if Red River isn’t a vibrant and thriving space for musicians and artists and people to go see live shows,” he said. “So we’re in active conversations with them and want to be as supportive as we possibly can be to make sure that Red River continues being a wonderful space in Austin for people to go see shows. And it’s still a very vibrant and integral part of downtown.”

Nicole Klepadlo, executive director of RRCD, said she hopes the plans for Sixth Street’s conversion will push city leaders to commit the financial and infrastructure resources needed to help both districts flourish.

“Despite their immense economic and cultural impacts, each area suffers from a lack of essential care,” she said, noting the need to encourage public-private partnerships with incentives for socially responsible development. “As one of downtown Austin’s core music institutions, we’re actively engaged in ongoing conversations with various community leaders, elected officials, business owners and developers to better understand their plans for the future of downtown Austin. Our organization is steadfast in its mission to protect Red River, and we look forward to continuing conversations with each stakeholder about how they plan to work with us to preserve and positively impact our mile-long district.”

Photo by vxla, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Posted In: Planning, District 9