An image from the R Place building’s real estate listing in 2022
Kauer (Image @nark_magazine)
A history of queer nightlife at Pine and Boylston will continue with a new future for the corner’s three-story, 106-year-old building where R Place once ruled.
Massive will be an “avant-garde club catering to the queer, allied and music-focused community” embracing “an electrifying fusion of underground dance music, captivating performances, and visionary shows,” the backers of the new club said in a Seattle Pride week announcement.
Music site Resident Advisor was first to report on the new project with statements from the Massive team of music and event promoter Kevin Kauer, designer Emi Vega, and the building’s owner and restaurant entrepreneur Tam Nguyen of the Tamarind Tree Restaurant Group.
“We intend to take advantage of all three floors on a regular basis, and involve many different queer artists, musicians and performers over time,” the Massive statement reported by Resident Advisor reads. “It’s most important to know that we are here for everyone, and we will be a platform for queer performers to thrive and grow, without taking any ownership or control over their art form.”
The announcement clears the intrigue surrounding the building that is being activated as The Teal Building community arts space in the interim after Nguyen’s $2.5 million 2022 acquisition of the property. CHS reported here on the Seattle: City of the Future exhibition that runs through June 25th. Nguyen revealed to CHS that any plans for a new Tamarind Tree in the building were off the table but said he could not yet reveal details of a new project in the works. The future is now taking shape.
Nguyen purchased the R Place building amid the loss of the gay club’s lease after 37 years of business and queer partying on Capitol Hill. The Comeback, a project from R Place manager Floyd Lovelady, shuttered earlier this year after an unsuccessful run in SoDo.
CHS previously reported that Capitol Hill-based tech firm Add3 was eyeing a deal for a new headquarters, and space for a new venue in the R Place building but CHS learned the company decided to move on over concerns about the cost of seismically retrofitting the 1917-built Bothell Motors garage building. Add3 founder and nightlife entrepreneur Brian Rauschenbach turned his attention instead to E Olive Way where he partnered in a deal to purchase the buildings home to his Captain Black’s as well as the Stumbling Monk, The Doctor’s Office, and the former Glo’s.
The Capitol Hill dance scene’s smaller venues have also seen some recent shifts. Lower Pike/Pine club Mint Lounge closed this winter and has remained shuttered. Meanwhile, the former Capitol Lounge space next to the Comet will be revived with Cultura, a new club with Latin and international DJ nights from the family behind 15th Ave E’s Smith pub.
Massive won’t be the first Capitol Hill dance club Kauer will have had a hand in launching. The DJ served as creative director for the somewhat tumultuous early days at Broadway club Q before the venue took a new direction after its first year of business. For Nguyen, meanwhile, Massive is the actualization of hopes for a homecoming.
Nguyen told CHS about his connections to the Hill earlier this year — he first arrived in the United States as a teenager from a refugee camp in Malaysia in 1980 after some time in Saigon. When he arrived in Seattle, he lived in a small studio on Summit and John with five brothers and didn’t know how to speak any English. As a teenager, Nguyen said he hoped to someday return to the neighborhood and open a business here.
Permit paperwork for Massive shows plans for “improvements and substantial alterations to all floor levels of existing bar/restaurant” and “lounge and bar occupancy on upper two floor levels.” The backers say they are building “a three floor club located in the iconic and historic monolith that was once R Place, sitting in the center of Capitol Hill in Seattle.”
The overhaul will also include installation of “a gorgeous Danley Soundsystem.”
“Massive is not just a club—it’s a portal to a futuristic nightlife experience unlike any other with an emphasis on machine learning and evocative art,” the Massive folks say along with an AI-stuffed @massive_club Instagram feed to prove it. “Join us on this exhilarating journey as we redefine Seattle’s nightlife scene and shape the destiny of the city.”
With construction permits still not approved and other paperwork like a new liquor license still in the works, it is not likely you’ll be dancing at Massive soon. But the Massive team is nothing if not ambitious. Their announcement says the club plans to open before the end of the year.
Massive will be located at 619 E Pine. Learn more at massive.club.
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