Earlier this year, it was reported that North Mississippi record store Beacon Sound was joining forces with the Nationale art gallery for a joint storefront at the intersection of East Burnside and 22nd. Beacon Sound's Andrew Neerman and Nationale's May Burruel announced this week that their joint venture won't be going forward as planned.
Instead, Beacon Sound will be remaining a separate entity and reopening at a new location on October 10. The new location is 207 SE Grand, between Ash and Pine. This is next door to the Elvis Room bar (which was once upon a time the East End rock venue), in a space that has been home to the Sea Tramp tattoo parlor and a State Farm insurance office. In a statement, Neerman and Burruel write, "This new space will be ground zero for the record label... and critically-acclaimed record shop. It will also function as a much-improved event space for shows, lectures, and fundraisers for social justice groups."
The reason for the change of plans, according to the pair, is because of unforeseen problems with the East Burnside location which are possibly delaying the opening of the joint Beacon Sound/Nationale show to as late as mid-November (the store was originally scheduled to open September 1). The intended location was not rated for retail occupancy, which protracted the permitting process. They write that the property owner, Bitar Company—who built the building back in 1958—didn't know the building wasn't ready for retail, and that untangling the red tape has been an uncertain and time-consuming endeavor.
For its part, Nationale is continuing on at the East Burnside location, and will wait out the delays. Burruel and Neerman write that Nationale will "[stay] the course with the 15 SE 22nd space and will be reopening aſter permit approval and buildout. In the meantime, the gallery is presenting a pop-up exhibition at PDX Contemporary Art in the PDX Window Project, featuring works from its forthcoming exhibition with Aruni Dharmakirthi."
The full statement from both parties can be read in full in Beacon Sound's Instagram post below, and on Nationale's blog. In short, expect Beacon Sound to open its record store on October 10 at 207 SE Grand, while the Nationale gallery should open at 15 SE 22nd later this year, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Senior Editor Ned Lannamann writes about pop culture, music, film, TV, books, travel, tech, food, drink, outdoors, politics, Portland, and other things.