Live music and line dancing hotspot the Wildhorse Saloon has been a Nashville fixture since it opened in June 1994. Soon, it'll be renovated and rebranded, with Luke Combs becoming the next country superstar with their own downtown venue.
Opry Entertainment group, owners of not just the Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium but also the Wildhorse Saloon and Blake Shelton's chain of Ole Red bars, announced the news on Thursday (April 13) during a press conference attended by Combs and Colin Reed, executive chairman of Ryman Hospitality Properties.
By summer 2024, the Wildhorse Saloon will become a 69,000-square-foot complex with a main stage designed to attract touring acts. In addition, there will be a sports bar, a rooftop bar, a songwriter's lounge and a "Beautiful Crazy" section for bachelorette parties.
"We're not going to let you know the name of this place just yet because we're in the final, final throes of trademarking [the brand]," Reed said. "The idea of this is to do a multi-faceted experience, but it'll be overseen by this wonderful song 'Hurricane.' We're also going to embody parts of his other big songs into this establishment."
The property at 120 Second Avenue North is located not just near downtown but also the city's next entertainment district.
"I really hope that what we're doing here will be the stimulator to the rest of the work that needs to get done to restore all that area that was damaged by that Christmas day bomb," Reed said. "This is truly one of the most strategically-positioned assets in Nashville. Across the river here, we probably as a city have one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in America. This whole riverfront will be developed across here over the next decade, and this will be sitting right in the middle of it."
Combs came on board after years of being embraced by the Opry family.
"I understand that you guys care about what you do as much as I care about what I do," Combs told Reed. "There wouldn't be a space with my name on it if it wasn't with you guys. I had the opportunity to do it, and people said, 'Here's a check for this much money' and do this. I didn't want to do it because I knew that nobody would care about it as much as I do until you guys came along."
