(L to R): Mike Curb, Aubrey Preston, Charles "Chuck" Elcan
RCA Studio A has been saved — with two of the biggest names in Nashville philanthropy joining the effort.
The sale of 30 Music Square West, the building housing the legendary RCA Studio A, was finalized today, nearly three months after Leiper's Fork philanthropist and preservationist Aubrey Preston made an 11th-hour, $5.6 million bid to save the embattled facility. Preston bought the property from Brentwood developer Tim Reynolds, whose Bravo Development planned to raze the building, studio and all, and replace it with a five-story condominium complex and restaurant.
Preston won't be the sole proprietor of the building and famed studio, where five decades of artists from Elvis, Waylon and Dolly to Kacey Musgraves, Jamey Johnson and Miranda Lambert have recorded. Immediately following the sale, Preston announced he's partnered with Nashville healthcare executive Charles "Chuck" Elcan and artist, record executive and former politician Mike Curb. The trio will split ownership of the property equally.
The investment in Studio A completes a set of historic Nashville studios Curb has purchased and restored over the years, making him a veritable Bill Gates of music-minded philanthropy in Music City. Curb's previous efforts include purchasing Nashville's three most iconic studios: Columbia Studio A; the Owen Bradley-built birthplace of modern country music, The Quonset Hut (which Curb acquired in 2006); and Studio A's neighboring, more-famous sister studio, RCA Studio B, which he leases to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Elcan is co-founder and president of Chinaco Healthcare Corp. He's also married to Trisha Frist Elcan, daughter of HCA and Chinaco co-founder Dr. Thomas Frist Jr., and a member of one of the most prominent families in Music City philanthropy. The Elcans previously purchased and preserved The Loveless Cafe in 2003.
On Sept. 30, Preston — a Leiper's Fork real estate mogul, musician and philanthropist best known for his preservation efforts in Franklin — threw a last-minute Hail Mary pass to save Studio A, accepting Reynolds' $5.6 million asking price mere hours before the offer was to come off the table. Reynolds, who'd already filed for demolition permits, paid its previous owners — the estates of Music Row founders Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley — $4.1 million for the building
While the trio — operating under Studio A Preservation Partners, LLC — hasn't announced specific plans for the soon-to-be 50-year-old building, it's safe to say wrecking balls and luxury condominiums won't be part of the picture.
One thing that sets Studio A apart from the other famous Nashville studios Curb purchased and restored as educational or tourism beacons, however, is that it's still a full-time, full-service studio. Piano-rocker Ben Folds has leased, maintained and operated it for the last 12 years. Artists ranging from Tony Bennett to Hunter Hayes, Sturgill Simpson and the Nashville Symphony have recorded there in recent years. Recent CMA Song of the Year winner Kacey Musgraves just cut her next record there.
In June, Folds wrote an open letter to the city of Nashville, and by extension his Music Row royalty landlords, protesting the sale of the building for demolition. The letter immediately went viral, gripping the hearts and minds of a growing city and galvanizing a local-turned-international grassroots movement to protect Music Row's endangered landmarks from falling to a combination of cultural drift and rapidly rising property values.
"Everyone wants Ben Folds to stay in Nashville," Curb told the Nashville Business Journal in July, when asked to weigh in on the controversy. "We have to strike a balance here because we have to be fair to the Atkins and Bradley families, however, none of us want to lose Studio A and Ben Folds, because we want more pop and other music in Nashville, and Ben Folds symbolizes that.”
Suffice to say, Folds gets to stay in Studio A.
"I think it's looking really, really good," Folds told the Scene last week, speaking via phone from a tour stop in Australia. "I do think that [Studio A] was a tipping point and I'm proud of everyone for all of the work, and noise, and the money; now there's an incredible investment over there."
