Music, local theater, art and coffee will come together near the Tempe campus when Venue 104 opens in early summer at Rural Road and University Drive.
Owner Michael Peck said the combination coffee shop and all-ages music venue signed a five-year lease to take over spaces previously occupied by Radio Shack and part of Hollywood Video in the Cornerstone Mall this month.
The space will have a café, a stage with professional sound and lighting and a rehearsal room for the theater productions.
“I want to cultivate a larger art scene … which is really close to my heart,” Peck said.
The venue will book national names and support local emergent indie music.
Peck, who has directed shows for and worked with a community theater, plans to apply his experience to direct in-house theater shows. He hopes to have at least a three-show season, but he may consider contracting out to start-up theater companies.
The renovation process will give the space an industrial feel with a chain link fence, concrete floors and graffiti art.
“I want it to look like the coolest garage ever converted to a venue,” Peck said.
He is currently looking for a graffiti artist to paint at least one wall. Local art will be displayed once the venue opens.
Peck said this project seemed like a natural next step for him after his experience as co-founder of Chyro Arts, a music venue in south Scottsdale.
Chyro Arts closed in May after three years of business, because Peck and the other managers found the nonprofit music venue to be inflexible.
“It was only a venue. There was nothing else going on in terms of revenue,” Peck said.
With about 5,600 square feet, Venue 104 will be roughly double the size of Chyro Arts.
Tom Leveen, the artistic director for Chyro Arts, believes Venue 104 will be more successful.
“Venue 104 is a culmination of things we had been hoping for, for years,” he said.
Leveen, who is also an author with Random House publishing, said he plans to be involved in Venue 104, but his position hasn’t been decided yet.
Although Venue 104 will host evening shows for all ages, Peck is pursuing a liquor license for the venue.
“It’s not a bar … but I want to make sure the patron base is getting what it needs,” Peck said.
Alcoholic drinks will only be served at the back of the theater during shows. Everyone will be carded before entering the venue. If they are over 21, they will be given a bracelet and allowed to drink.
As part of offering diverse services, Peck will also rent the stage out to bands or other groups that need a quality place to rehearse on nights when a show isn’t scheduled.
Robbie Pfeffer, manager of The Fixx, a music venue that opened in Tempe in January, said in an e-mail that he welcomed another music venue in the area, because it would help build the art community.
“The more people who care for and nurture this community in a positive way, the more people will start caring about and actively participating in the community,” Pfeffer said.
Reach the reporter at mary.shinn@asu.edu
