Rhizome, DC’s most eclectic music venue, can be found in a ramshackle home in Takoma—for now. The arts nonprofit and DIY space has occupied the house since 2016, but in 2020, landlord Maple Park Associates LLC announced plans to sell the property to developer Petra. The sale was never finalized, and now Rhizome is attempting a new strategy: Purchase a new space with help from the community.
In a town hall meeting on Tuesday night, Rhizome co-founder Layne Garrett announced that—with the help of a $350,000 grant from DC’s Commission on Arts and Humanities—the nonprofit is looking to purchase a permanent space at 7733 Alaska Ave., NW, just over a mile from their current home.
“It’s not a house,” Garrett told attendees Tuesday night, noting the prospective new venue’s commercial structure. “But as we’ve made this house our own. I think you’ll share our confidence that we can make any space our own.”
However, Rhizome’s grant won’t cover the full cost of the Alaska Ave property. And with negative cash flow, they can’t secure a loan, says Garrett. So, Rhizome is seeking loans from the community to raise the remaining $400,000 they need.
“It’s a different way of financing a big purchase, and the organization is all about community engagement and furthering community power, and we’ve landed on this model of financing we feel is aligned with our ethos, so we’re excited about how that is gonna turn out,” Garrett says.
The loans will be paid back biannually over a span of 10 or 15 years, at a rate of between 0 to 5 percent APR, depending on what the loaner opts for, with a minimum of $2,500.
Garrett stresses Rhizome has no immediate plans to close, and that they have an agreement with their landlord for a six-month grace period to move out, if or when the deal is finalized.
“Initially, we thought it’d happen quickly, but it hasn’t,” says Garrett. “We’re not sure exactly how long we’ll be able to stay there, but it’s been over three and a half years of kind of waiting around for the news.”
Maple Park Associates could not be reached for comment; when Washingtonian visited the Bethesda address the LLC was registered at, no one opened the door. Petra did not immediately respond to Washingtonian’s request for comment.
The clock is ticking on Rhizome’s plans: The official deadline for using the grant money is September 30. Garrett says they have a closing date tentatively set for May 9, but it could be pushed back.
“So far it’s been a moving deadline,” Garrett said Tuesday night. “It seems like the world of commercial real estate is full of moving deadlines.”
