Saving Nashville’s Soul: Exit / In’s Chris Cobb Bids For Building Being Sold To Hotel Developer

Now, the property that includes Exit / In, the city’s storied club celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is in the process of being sold to AJ Capital, a luxury hotel developer. 

Chris Cobb, who leases the 500-capacity Exit / In building along with that of the neighboring Hurry Back bar, isn’t letting it go without a fight, however. 

He and supporters raised enough money to make an offer to buy the property, once sold, from AJ Capitol. 

The developer has an agreement with the property owners to acquire the Elliston Place property that is part of what is known as Nashville’s “Rock Block.”

“This family purchased the corner block for $150,000 back in the 1970s and have owned it ever since; it’s been Exit / In pretty much the whole time and is celebrating 50 years,” Cobb tells Pollstar. “Now they’ve decided it’s time to sell. And they’ve accepted an offer from AJ Capital Partners and it’s in due diligence right now. So we’re not there yet. 

“But what complicates our situation is that we actually offered more than AJ Capital, the hotel developers who were awarded the contract. And we have found out that the current owners and brokerage firm don’t want to sell it to us.”

It’s a bold suggestion, considering that Nashville in general and the Midtown area in particular continue to undergo a development boom that began more than a decade ago and continues to transform Music City. 

The “Rock Block” is surrounded by a mix of businesses including medical offices and hotels including Loews Vanderbilt, Hampton Inn Suites, and Graduate Nashville – a hotel brand of AJ Capital. 

A year ago, Cobb and his wife Telisha spearheaded a successful campaign called “Save The Rock Block” that resisted a zoning variance sought by another hotel developer, Elliston Hospitality LLC. 

In that case, the developer intended to raze an apartment building across the street from Exit / In and build a Holiday Inn Express. 

The bid failed, and “Save The Rock Block” claimed a victory for what’s considered one of the few “authentic” locales for music and working class creatives in Nashville. 

It may have constituted a Pyrrhic victory, however, as gentrification and development march on in the city and the neighborhood, near Vanderbilt University.

“For this parcel in particular,” Cobb acknowledges, “we’re told there were 40 offers. On what we call the Rock Block, it’s mostly one- and two-story buildings and on one city block 90% of the other side of the street sold in the last 18 months. Our parcel would be second on our side of the street in the last 12. So it’s rapidly become one of the very quickly moving neighborhoods here in Nashville.” 

A lesson learned from last year’s “Save The Rock Block” experience was that the best way to save the clubs on highly desirable real estate is to own the real estate. If AJ Capital succeeds in closing the property purchase, it likely can’t move to evict Exit/In while its current lease is in place, giving the venue about two more years in the location. 

But once the lease expires, all bets are off. 

The fundraising effort is a combination of a GoFundMe account, and assistance from artists, Music Venue Alliance Nashville, and the Live Venue Recovery Fund – an investment fund founded by NIVA President and First Avenue owner/CEO Dayna Frank and Grubb Properties CEO Clay Grubb. 

Grubb Properties’ initiative is “partnering with live music venue operators to help them establish long-term ownership. By increasing the number of owner-operators, the fund is creating a more diverse and sustainable independent live music ecosystem.”

Rather than casting a wary eye at yet another real estate developer, Cobb is grateful for Grubb Properties’ involvement.

“I can’t even really find the right words to describe how elated, excited, relieved and thankful we were when we were afforded the opportunity through Grubb Properties and Live Venue Recovery Fund to purchase the property and have a plan,” Cobb emphasizes. 

“The intent of that fund and that initiative is to purchase properties that are endangered and transfer the ownership of the land to the operators over time. It’s the first real method that I’m aware of to break that age old cycle.

“[Clay] Grubb and Dayna Frank … envisioned this and created the Live Venue Recovery Fund. What they did is, they said, ‘Look, we’ve got to figure out how to break the cycle.’ Ultimately, the operators have to own the dirt if you want these places to stay.”

Whether AJ Capital is receptive to the offer to purchase the property once a sale is completed is an open question. The company did not respond to an interview request from Pollstar by press time. 

However, Cobb and his supporters are enlisting some heavy hitters to encourage AJ Capital to flip the property.

“We have some city council members who are are strongly in our corner, including our district council member,” Cobb says. “He is coordinating a press conference for this week and inviting other members of council. And [Nashville Mayor John Cooper] has invited our congressman [Rep. Jim Cooper]. We have a good relationship with him and his office staff. Artists are starting to come out and support us and so have a couple of agents and managers who have reached out to me and are communicating with their own clients.”

Artists who quickly emerged in support of Exit / In include drummer Neil Mason of Cadillac Three, who emailed his support to Pollstar.

“Exit / In has been as important to Nashville, its history and what it’s grown into today as any venue in town.” Mason writes. “To play at Exit / In, whether you’re a local artist, band or a touring act is a rite of passage and the idea of Nashville without Exit / In on Elliston Place is like LA without sunshine or New York City without skyscrapers. It’s vital to the continued development of our city to protect our landmarks and Exit / In is absolutely one of them. We fully support Chris & Telisha Cobb in their efforts to continue to be great leaders in our community, caretakers of Exit / In.” 

Other artists have offered to send a message, in novel ways, to AJ Capital, which recently moved to Nashville. “Some friends of mine in a pretty well-known Nashville national band had an idea,” Cobb says. “‘Let’s just go start playing and we’ll invite all of our friends and we won’t stop playing until they sell it to you.’”