Peelander-Z performs at Elysium during SXSW on March 16, 2011.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
The building that houses Austin music venues Elysium and The 13th Floor has been listed for sale on the commercial real estate website LoopNet.com, as first reported by the Austin Chronicle. The asking price for the 8,200-square-foot property at 701-713 Red River St. is $4.1 million.
According to the listing, this is the first time the property has been offered for sale in more than 80 years. Elysium has been operating in the space since 2001, while 13th Floor moved onto the street in 2022.
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Peelander-Z at Elysium at SXSW 2011.
Jay Janner/American-Statesman
The news comes days after longtime Austin music venue Valhalla announced it will be forced to close its doors in late October. The building that housed the metal club — which has been serving heavy grooves for almost 17 years and pasta for five — has been sold and will be reborn as a franchise of the Tennessee-based chain Gus’s Fried Chicken.
In June, club owner John Wickham, president of the Red River Cultural District board, alluded to coming troubles. RRCD businesses going on the market have created “a time of uncertainty,” he told the Statesman.
He hoped the city could find some sort of incentives for landowners “to keep and foster those live music venues that do so much to promote the cultural vitality of Austin.”
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The building at 701-713 Red River St. has been in the family of current owner J.B. Branton Jr. since the 1920s. The building across the street that houses Valhalla was owned by the same family. Branton told the Austin Chronicle he hopes the building will remain a music venue. “We call ourselves the Live Music Capital, and if there aren’t live music venues we can’t really call it that,” he said.
Wickham noted that the tight cluster of venues in the cultural district is crucial to Austin festivals like South by Southwest.
“Without those venues, you don’t have those festivals. Without the festivals, we don’t get the tourism and the hotel money. It’s a cycle,” Wickham said at the time.
Jake Garcia from The 13th Floor told the Statesman he had “no information to share at the moment,” while Wickham and Nicole Klepadlo, executive director of the Red River Cultural District, did not respond to a request for comment.
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What is Elysium?
Chameleon Lime WhoopiePie performs at the Sounds from Japan showcase at Elysium at South by Southwest on Friday March 17, 2023.
Jay Janner / American-Statesman
Elysium has been hosting Austin’s alternative music and lifestyle scenes since it opened and is the only goth club in the downtown area. Bookings lean toward smaller local and touring industrial, electronic, darkwave and synthpop bands. The club also programs drag shows and DJ nights and has hosted popular SXSW events like Korean music showcases and Japan Nite.
What is The 13th Floor
Customers order drinks at the bar at The 13th Floor on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026 in Austin.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Named after Austin’s legendary ’60s psychedelic band led by Roky Erickson, shows are booked by Jake Garcia of standout local band The Black Angels. Consequently, the club has some of the best rock programming in town.
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Erickson’s lyrics on a neon sign next to the bathroom now feel somewhat ominous: “You’re gonna miss me.”
Iconic rock dive Beerland operated out of the space for almost 20 years from 2001 to 2019. A club called the Green Jay moved in briefly before Garcia and Nick Yaklin opened The 13th Floor in 2022.
Andrew Jackson, from left, singer Jake McCoy, Bram Howard and Rhys Woodruff of the Austin band, Leche, perform on the patio at Beerland during SXSW on March 16, 2018. The club famously shunned official festival events, opting to book its own programming.
Jay Janner/American-Statesman
A building with a rich and storied history
In May, the Red River Cultural District launched an online series called Cultural Currents that explores the street’s history.
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The property had an early life as a blacksmith shop and wood-frame house built by a formerly enslaved person named Jordan Diamond in 1867. Another former enslaved person, Emma Hartsfield, also lived on the property with her white husband and biracial children after purchasing the lot in 1885. The lot was home to The Hungry Man Cafe from 1937 to 1942, and it housed other restaurants, shops, apartments and clothing stores throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Part of the space became the short-lived playhouse Waterloo Social Club in 1971 before being transformed into a music club less than two years later.
In 1974, Bunch King Brittain bought and remodeled the club, opening Waterloo Country. That rebranded to a popular gay country-western bar called Austin Country, which was open for a decade before closing around 1982.
J’cuuzi performs at Elysium during Red River Cultural District’s Free Week Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.
Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
The space was then home to the Cave Club in 1986, Planetarium in 1988 and Sanitarium and Hip Hop Club in 1992. Club Kilimanjaro came in 1993 and Cowboys in 1995. The Split Rail opened in 1996 but closed after one year and was replaced by the Atomic Cafe which was open until Elysium took over in 2001.
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This is a developing story.