Grimey's Is Relocating to East Nashville

On April 21, Grimey’s New and Preloved Music will join independent record stores across Nashville and around the country in celebrating Record Store Day, as it has for the 11 years since the holiday began. But this will be the last RSD that Grimey’s celebrates in the building at 1604 Eighth Ave. S., which was built at the turn of the 20th century and has been the record store's home since 2004. This fall, the much-loved shop — co-owned by namesake Mike Grimes (also a co-owner of The Basement and The Basement East) and vinyl expert and radio DJ Doyle “D-Funk” Davis — will move to the building at 1060 E. Trinity Lane that was formerly Point of Mercy Church, just off Gallatin Pike.

“It’s super accessible, it's got better parking, it is a gorgeous, beautiful church with a sanctuary that has loads of vibe and soul,” Davis tells the Scene. “And I think it will, for all the people who've always thought Grimey's has a real special vibe, just the way it looks and feels inside — this will continue that.”

The space is substantially larger, with more than 4,000 square feet spread over two floors. The current plan is to put new and used records upstairs and put print material (plus offices, receiving and storage) downstairs. There’s already a stage built into the sanctuary, which stands to make the free, all-ages in-store shows routinely booked at Grimey's more comfortable and accessible. Davis says the capacity of Grimey’s on Eighth Avenue is 120 people, and he expects it to be double at the new location. There's also room on the property for larger outdoor events like Record Store Day parties or album release shows like the one Grimey's hosted for Jason Isbell last year. 

This change marks the next phase in nearly two decades of steady growth for Grimey’s. The store began in a converted house in Berry Hill in 1999, the same year that an investor group (including Steve West, co-founder of the long-defunct 328 Performance Hall, a key venue in the city in the 1990s) bought and began renovating 1604 Eighth Ave. S., which was built in 1906. Grimey’s moved into the building’s ground floor in 2004, and Grimes began booking shows in the downstairs room that soon became The Basement — an entirely separate business entity, though the two are certainly linked in spirit and in the minds of many.

In 2013, Grimey’s expanded into the building next door, whose address is 1702 Eighth Ave. S. and is under different ownership. Dubbed Grimey’s Too, the second building houses all of Grimey’s used inventory, as well as books and magazines under the name Howlin’ Books. In February 2016, a few months before community radio station WXNA opened its studio on the top floor of the 1604 building, Adam Gold reported that the building was for sale. It remains on the market. The adjacent building where Grimey’s Too is located has sold, however, and Davis & Co. made the decision to vacate that space when their lease is up in May of this year. That puts the store in the uncomfortable position of squeezing its used and new inventory back into the space it came from — a throwback to the days when the store was outgrowing its Berry Hill spot, and you needed to be pretty flexible to get around inside. 

“My lease [in the 1604 building] just runs through the end of this year,” Davis says. “I’m being told that the way it looks, I can probably get another year on this space, but I feel like that's only prolonging the inevitable. A year from now, it might be even harder to find an appropriate space, not easier. I feel like we just got to take our destiny by the horns, if you will, and find a more secure future somewhere else.”

Finding a space that met Grimey's needs and budget near their present location on Eighth Avenue South proved impossible. Following the announcement of the proposed soccer stadium at The Fairgrounds Nashville, real estate prices in the area and in nearby Wedgewood-Houston have increased substantially. After three months of considering spots all over town, the Grimey's crew settled on the site on Trinity Lane. It's walking distance from densely populated neighborhoods. It's close to a bus stop and an exit from Ellington Parkway — ideally, close enough to continue drawing tourist traffic from downtown when people travel in for big shows at the Ryman or Bridgestone Arena — and it's in close proximity to The Groove, Fond Object's Riverside Village location and Vinyl Tap. The Great Escape's Madison superstore is a few minutes' drive away, as well.

“They've got their own customer bases and clienteles that they have grown, and I do feel like a rising tide lifts all the boats,” Davis says. “That means when you decide to go record shopping, now instead of choosing one over the other, maybe you hit three or four every time, and you find more records and you meet more people. That sounds good to me.” 

Grimes tells the Scene he's very excited about the Grimey's move, but did not comment on how it might affect The Basement. He and his Basement business partner Dave Brown already have a club in East Nashville, The Basement East. It's just a few blocks down Woodland Street from 3 Crow Bar, where Grimes ran Slow Bar in the early Aughts — often seen as one of the forces that catalyzed the redevelopment of Five Points and surrounding neighborhoods.

(Update, April 19, 1 p.m.: The Basement will remain in its present location through 2019, Davis says.)

Grimey's relocation puts it near the front of a wave of substantial changes in another part of East Nashville. The new spot is a stone's throw from new condo complexes and other residential development along Trinity Lane. When it left the building that Grimey's will take over, Point of Mercy moved into another, much larger building on the property. It's expected that the church will move once again this summer, making the space prime for future uses like retail, restaurants or a brewery. 

Now that there's a signed lease in hand, preparations can begin at Grimey's new site on Trinity Lane. Davis says there are tentative plans to make the move in October and hold a grand opening before the holidays, possibly on Nov. 30 for Black Friday.

“The space we found that we thought would work absolutely the best for this and be the best move for our business at this time happens to be in East Nashville, but I've always felt like we are Nashville's record store — we're not tied specifically to any given neighborhood,” Davis says. “I want everybody who lives in the greater Nashville area to feel like we're their record store, you know? It's one reason we stock such a wide variety of stuff. … From day one, it was all about breaking through that perception, that stereotype, of the elitist, indie record-store snob.”