- Sisters Club back patio
On Thursday I received a call from Kevin Barnett, the owner of the now-closed Sisters Club on Maple Avenue. Rumor had it the place was closed due to flooding issues, but Barnett says that’s not true.
“We were bought out. In fact, the whole block has been bought out by Trammell Crow,” he said.
By block, he means everything from his location to Herrera’s restaurant, and it’s all expected to be razed at the beginning of next year. No telling what other business owners think, but Barnett said he never felt slighted or wronged.
“They were very generous,” he said. “We were aware this was eventually going to happen, just not this soon. But they bought us out of our lease. “
Barnett said he never got a vibe that there was anything anti-gay about the process and said it was all a business move by Crow to expand and develop Maple Avenue to co-exist with the company’s headquarters at Maple and Oak Lawn avenues. And even though he opened the club eight months ago, Barnett has no regrets about what happened. Instead, he sees it as a blessing in disguise.
“I have no regrets about anything and I learned a lot,” he said. “We love the community here, but one of our biggest mistakes was to take a dead horse and bring it back to life. People wouldn’t let that Buddies II reputation go. That didn’t let us have our own identity.”
Barnett had the option of operating until November, but it sounds like he was ready to move on. He shut down the shop, packed everything and began making his move. With the same vibe, but different name, he’ll reopen the club in Fort Worth to take advantage of the newly thriving LGBT community there — and to establish an identity of his own.
“I’m excited to see growth in Dallas, and I think Trammell Crow will improve Maple Avenue,” he said. “But Dallas is overpopulated with bars, and Fort Worth is not. We’d get a brand new start and create our own reputation. We looked at buildings in Dallas but found a place in Fort Worth. We’re planning to open definitely this year.”
According to Barnett, the only thing Trammell Crow asked was to keep it on the down-low until the details were ironed out. With people asking him what was going on with the club when he shut the doors, Barnett had to create a diversion. This led to those plumbing rumors.
“I had to say something when people kept asking, so I just said that we had some flooding issues,” Barnett said. “It was silly but people kept talking and I was trying to not say anything. It bought me some time and so that’s why I’m calling now. But in the end, we’re not scorned by any means and financially, we came out OK. Everything was done like it should have been.”
Barnett seems like a smart business man. The article tells me the Owner says he’ll open a club in Fort Worth after his lease was bought out by Trammell Crow. The headline possibly implies a different tone.
you know, had to keep it on the down-low so local gay activists wouldn’t have a chance to argue about it with Trammel Crow.
After reading this article, I am especially livid about the way things were handled. I understand Trammel Crow wanting things kept under wraps, but Mr. Barnett did not allow time for questions, and the “flooding rumors” were in no way quick thinking. Instead of allowing his employees time to search for another job, he gave them absolutely no notice and a lie as an explaination for their sudden loss of employment. The only inclination anyone may have had, that something was amiss, was that there was no keg ordered for sunday volleyball. I am fed up with bar owners thinking they can treat their employees so poorly. I understand not wishing to shine the light on Trammel Crow, but knowing that the owners had the option to remain open until November but instead dropped all of their staff without notice is infuriating. This article is misleading in that Mr. barnett claims to have started these rumors when faced with nosy questions, but the truth is that on a Tuesday SOME of his employees received a text message saying that the club had red flagged by the city for out of date plumbing and the building’s owner did not wish to pay for repairs and instead bought out their lease. so not only did he throw the building’s owner under the bus, but he effectively escaped having to terminate his employees in a fair manner. and now, everyone is supposed to be happy because the bar will be reopening with a new vibe, but if you ask me, this new vibe is no better than the vibe it had shared with BuddiesII because it is deceptive and dishonest.