Austin salsa dancers could lose one of the cities most popular venues for Latin music.
Local Latin music and dance club Miguel's La Bodega has confirmed it will close its doors this June because the rent will more than double for the property at 415 Colorado St.
"Folks have met here, have married here, and, in my case, I met the mother of my child. There will always be a soft spot in these walls for me," said Miguel A. Alvarez Jr., the club's owner and founder.
The increase comes with the property's change of ownership. Dorot, LP, purchased the building that houses Miguel's, along with those of Kenichi sushi restaurant, Alamo Drafthouse theater and Cuba Libre restaurant.
Dorot raised the rent on the building Alvarez has leased since 1995 from about $8,500 to about $19,500 per month.
The current contract expires June 30, which will be the club's last day at the Warehouse District location.
"I would love him to stay. I know he has been there for nine years. The reason he's leaving is because he has no food, no restaurant," said David Zedeck, managing partner at Dorot.
"To be fair, you can't pay rent if you just have a bar. You need a food component to your menu in order to pay the rent," Zedeck said.
Alvarez originally operated a restaurant along with his bar. Although it received favorable reviews, the restaurant was removed in fall 2001 because it demanded too much time and effort, Alvarez said.
"You just seem to get into too much trouble when you try to be too much for too many people," Alvarez said.
Reopening the restaurant would bring more revenue but not enough to meet the lease payments, Alvarez said.
The new lease contract required Dorot to pay Alvarez $200,000, the equivalent of about three years of rent under the previous contract. Alvarez received the money in January, along with a letter notifying him he could either vacate the property or begin paying the increased rent six months later.
He decided to use the money to relocate.
"I was not going to throw in that money to pay the lease and find out the hard way that it wasn't the right decision," he said.
Alvarez intends to reopen the bar in a new location but has not yet found a suitable property.
"Miguel's was the backbone of the salsa dancing community. If it closes down, I don't know where we're going to go," said UT Salsa Club co-founder Rebecca Stearns, a theater and dance junior and Miguel's regular.
The club hosts 250-to-400 clients on busy nights and attracts a diverse crowd.
"We were the cradle of live Latin music in Austin," Alvarez said. "We're certainly the best at what we do, I'm sure there's going to be a void left," Alvarez said.
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