The Nash wants you to know: They want to stay on Roosevelt, but they’re keeping their options open.
The nationally celebrated jazz venue has been a fixture of Roosevelt Row since 2012, but its lease is set to expire in 2020.
When the Phoenix New Times published a piece last week with the headline “Jazz Club The Nash Is Looking to Leave Its Current Location on Roosevelt Row,” the jazz venue quickly responded, calling the article by New Times contributor Lynn Trimble “misleading” in a Facebook post.
“We have not made any determination about moving at the expiration of our current lease,” the post read. “The Nash staff and Board of Directors have been looking at how that will impact us, and researching a variety of options for the future. Our preference is to stay at our current location on Roosevelt Row, preferably with a new long-term lease with the new owner of the building.”
Steve Maun, the managing director of The Nash, told the Downtown Devil that he thought the article misled readers into thinking that The Nash would definitely be changing venues. However, Maun also confirmed that The Nash was “exploring [its] options,” but that their preference would be to stay at its current location on Roosevelt and First streets.
“We don’t want to end up on the curb,” said Maun.
He added that The Nash’s long-term plan may include purchasing their own venue most likely in the downtown area, but offered no specific timeline.
Phoenix New Times Editor-in-Chief Stuart Warner said he was confused by The Nash’s statement of calling Trimble’s article misleading.
“It seems strange … I don’t know what else to say,” said Warner. “They’ve acknowledged they’ve explored other sites.” He added that The Nash is still his “favorite music spot in Phoenix.”
According to Warner, Maun has not reached out to him personally about the article and the New Times has not issued a correction at this time.
Downtown developer True North Studio recently acquired the building which houses The Nash for around $2 million. Maun stated that The Nash’s consideration of other sites has nothing to do with the True North purchase.
The jazz venue, which is named for prolific Phoenix-based jazz drummer Lewis Nash, is also the site of Jazz in Arizona, a nonprofit which supports jazz performances and education.
Where The Nash will find itself in 2020 and beyond is anyone’s guess.
Contact the reporter at Madeline.Ackley@asu.edu.
Correction: On June 21, this article was updated to reflect that the downtown developer that owns The Nash building is called True North Studio, singular, not ‘True North Studios’, plural.
Madeline is the community editor for Downtown Devil and is a senior studying at the Walter Cronkite School. She is a local freelance journalist who primarily covers politics, policing, immigration and business. In 2019, she won first place in her category in the national SPJ Mark of Excellence Awards for her reporting on deported veterans in Tijuana, Mexico with Cronkite News.
