It forced the sale into the hands of a developer who had visions of million dollar condos stacked eight floors high and a big fancy steakhouse right where we sat. He couldn’t wait for us to have to vacate, coming in the very next day and gutting the space. And that’s how it remains to this day: sadly empty, not even a fresh coat of paint on the outside in 14 years, dirty windows, and absent a few nice temporary displays to help brighten the corner and the rest of that wonderful block. It’s a fitting monument to when development gets ahead of reality…runs over yet another iconic local business…and then the new building owner doesn’t even have the pride and decency to maintain his building in a manner worthy of being on The Main Street of Texas.
But hey, that saga ended happily after all – at least for us. With contents once more loaded onto moving trucks and, once again, no new downtown home yet secured, we landed in our current funky, multi-level space in the Littlefield “Mall”/Garage/Apartments on a prayer and a lease done on a scrap of paper in about 20 minutes. No joke.
I had inquired about this same long-vacant space several times over many months prior to our need to move. Each time I was told with some air of cockiness by a certain nameless agent: “you don’t fit what we’re looking for.” But with nothing to lose, I tried one last time. The leasing agent who I had spoken with previously was out of town, so I ended up chatting with his partner. After explaining our plight, he agreed to meet us over at the space. As prior AT&T retail space, it was perfect! Then he said: “Why, sure, we’d love to have y’all in this spot. But the building is for sale so we can only give you a month-to-month lease.”
Although quite nervous about the term (or lack thereof), the next day we were in there painting and arranging. A few weeks later Wild About Music re-opened downtown for the fourth time. An interesting sidenote: This also happens to be the very same spot (but in a previous building that stood there) of the original location of Austin’s famed Antone’s Home of The Blues, and the adjoining OK Records. Here a young Stevie Ray Vaughan posed with his guitar out front for a classic Austin Chronicle photo that also later became the album cover of Blues At Sunrise.
Somehow we have managed to last for almost 6 years now on those month-to-month terms. (Please, someone, knock on wood.) This despite four changes of building ownership over the first four years. During two of those painful interim holdings we were told we were soon going to be history again. Once to be replaced by a high-end spa and salon to service an upscale South Beach Miami boutique hotel; clearly “WAM did not fit that formula,” we were told. Then, later, another threat by a Walgreen’s coming to invade historic Sixth Street via our space — yes, I know, pathetic, aye? — because “a national-credit tenant could pay far more than a little local business,” said yet another very important leasing agent.
Fortunately we now find ourselves in the care and attentive property ownership of T. Stacy & Associates and their great staff. We know full well that handwriting is on the wall and another move still looms large in our future. Our block has been designated for some very intensive redevelopment one day. Some of it would have already begun had the recession not intervened. But at least with Tom Stacy on the other end, we also know that we will have loads of advance warning and likely plenty of helping hands to make sure we do alright in any transition. Perhaps we might even end up right back in the same spot post-redevelopment (if we could survive an interim solution half intact).
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