AUSTIN, Texas — The Hole in the Wall will remain a staple on the University of Texas at Austin's "Drag" for at least another two decades.
The Austin Monitor reports that the music venue has secured a 20-year lease, thanks in large part to $1.6 million in assistance from the City of Austin's Iconic Venue Fund. The report states that Will Tanner, who purchased the club located on the part of Guadalupe Street known as "The Drag" in 2008, signed the new lease agreement with The Weitzman Group realty firm on Aug. 14.
The signing comes after 10 months of negotiation with staff from the City and the Austin Economic Development Corporation for The Hole in the Wall to become the first recipient of money from the Iconic Venue Fund. The fund's purpose is to preserve culturally significant music venues in the "Live Music Capital of the World."
According to the Austin Monitor, The Hole in the Wall has operated on a month-to-month lease since its most recent yearlong lease expired in May. Tanner told the publication that without the City's help, the venue probably would've closed this spring.
"I’m very grateful for the City of Austin to recognize that this is something that they feel like is important to stick around," Tanner told the Austin Monitor. "Hole in the Wall 100% got saved.”
The report states that the $1.6 million from the City will help cover a portion of the club's roughly $15,000 monthly rent over the length of its lease. It will also pay for improvements to the middle stage area and a nearly 3,000-square-foot rear building that will be made available for lease as a restaurant or other hospitality business.
The Iconic Venue Fund is funded by a combination of Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars for venues and money from a 2018 bond package that included $12 million to open and preserve creative spaces.
According to the Austin Monitor, the Economic Development Corporation began taking applications for potential cultural trust projects in late 2021 and used that process to identify more than $300 million in needed assistance for venues and other creative organizations. Fourteen priority projects were selected from the 45 submitted proposals.
"The biggest point is that we’ve been able to help negotiate and secure an ability for Hole in the Wall to stay in place and thrive over the next 20 years,” Anne Gatling Haynes, chief transactions officer for the Economic Development Corporation, told the Austin Monitor.
Haynes said even with the assistance from the City, The Hole in the Wall deal was made possible by property owners with The Weitzman Group, who were willing to accept a mostly flat rental rate that was "very low, considering everything else on The Drag right now."
Tanner and his staff say they will work to complete the upgrades to The Hole in the Wall in time for the venue's 50th anniversary celebration next year. They hope to book acts from all five decades of the club's history.
"Stuff like this doesn’t happen at bars like Hole in the Wall,” Tanner told the Austin Monitor. "We’re not like high-flying anything or fancy in any way. Definitely there’s a vibe there. The people that go there really love it, certain bands really love it, and I really love it."
To learn more, read the Austin Monitor's full report.
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