Nashville Jazz Workshop Eyes April Opening on Buchanan Street

Back in the fall, the Nashville Jazz Workshop's Lori Mechem and Roger Spencer told Scene contributor Ron Wynn that the nonprofit institution would relocate in the spring. The jazz education center and performance space left its longtime home in Germantown’s Neuhoff complex and, according to executive director Eric Dilts, is aiming to be operational in its new home at 1012 Buchanan St. in early April.

Per a release, NJW will continue holding classes and performances in a temporary space in Donelson, hoping to avoid interrupting the schedule until the transition is complete. The release does not note the cost of the move to the Buchanan Arts District. 

Music City Center for Spiritual Living most recently operated from the building (pictured) in which the jazz venue will take space. David Crabtree, a local real estate investor and major proponent of the Buchanan Arts District development efforts, owns the property.

The nonprofit is leaving the place that’s been its home since 2000 (two years after its formation) due to some major work that’s coming. The Neuhoff site’s buildings are set to receive a major adaptive reuse and mixed-use transformation from Atlanta-based New City Properties LLC. 

“We are excited about our new location and look forward to joining the dynamic artistic community emerging on Buchanan Street,” Dilts says in the release. “The Neuhoff Complex has been a fabulous home for NJW for nearly 20 years and we’ve watched the neighborhood grow and evolve. The staff and board of NJW are grateful to New City Properties for their generous support and assistance during the transition.”

Jim Irwin — New City president and a key figure in the reinvention of what became Ponce City Market when he worked at Atlanta-based Jamestown — has enlisted New York City-based S9 Architecture (the design architect) and Nashville-based Smith Gee Studio to design the future new buildings for the 9.2-acre Neuhoff site.

“The NJW is doing incredibly important work for the Nashville community and we are [pleased] to work closely together to ensure that [it] was able to successfully transition into a new location before construction activities begin at Neuhoff,” Irwin says in the release.