At the end of 2020, owners of independent music venues across the country got to celebrate a win. A provision for the federal financial aid that they’d been lobbying for since uniting as the National Independent Venue Association at the beginning of the pandemic was included in December’s 11th-hour second stimulus bill. But there are enormous challenges in the venue business that have nothing to do with COVID-19. Case in point: As first reported by Tennessee Lookout’s Nate Rau, the property home to Nashville’s historic Exit/In has been put up for sale, potentially putting the club’s future in jeopardy.
The plot on Elliston Place is owned by two families who each have a 50 percent stake. It includes both Exit/In, whose 50th anniversary is coming this summer, and its sister business, neighboring bar Hurry Back. Now that the property is on the market, with the sale to be handled by Southeast Venture, Exit/In owner Chris Cobb tells Rau that he and wife Telisha Cobb are devising a plan to buy it themselves. They’re working with development firm Grubb Properties, which has launched a program called the Live Venue Recovery Fund to help business owners in the venue world own the property their clubs stand on.
“Exit/In has been a valued asset to Nashville for 50 years,” Cobb tells Rau. “My dream is for the club to see 100! Unfortunately, development threatens Exit/In and venues like it across the globe. The live venue recovery fund provides trusted operators the opportunity to own their buildings, which is a MUST for the long-term health of our independent ecosystem.”
The news is the latest in a long run of significant real estate activity in this section of Elliston Place near Vanderbilt, long known as the Rock Block for the presence of Exit/In, fellow club The End and now-defunct bar Gold Rush. In the fall, just a few months after a historic marker was placed outside Exit/In, the property home to The End was sold. The End, across the street from Exit/In, is adjacent to a group of apartment buildings slated to be demolished and replaced by a hotel. Though the hotel construction may continue, neighboring businesses were successful in a 2019 bid against rezoning efforts that would have made it a simpler matter. The area was listed in 2019 at the top of Historic Nashville’s annual Nashville Nine list of the most endangered historic properties.
