Mattress retail startup and Phoenix cheerleaders Tuft & Needle have purchased an historic and iconic building on Grand Avenue.
Owners JT Marino and Daehee Park bought a 6,000-square-foot building at 750 Grand Avenue, most recently known as the Paper Heart, a performance space, music venue, gallery, coffee shop and bar.
The building opened in the 1960s as a Quebedeaux Chevrolet, and was designed by Victor Gruen, the Austrian architect known as “the father of the American shopping mall.”
The Paper Heart was opened by Scott Sanders in 2000 and ran until the end of 2007. The space was one of the early participants of downtown Phoenix’s First Fridays art walk.
Steph Carrico and JRC, owners of the Trunk Space — a long-standing Grand Ave. music venue that has since moved— were involved in the Paper Heart as well.
Park and Marino heard about the space and its history from the Grand Avenue community, and decided to purchase it to preserve the building and the lower Grand Avenue corridor, according to representatives.
The T&N headquarters is across the street on Grand Avenue.
Marino and Park then established Grand Paper Heart, LLC in fall 2016 to purchase the building, which has a full cash value of $512,200, according to Maricopa County records.
T&N declined to disclose the purchase amount, and are not sure what they plan to do with the building.
“We just want to make sure while we’re investing in this area that the other buildings are preserved,” said company representatives.
Marino and Park were runners-up in the Phoenix Business Journal’s 2016 Businessperson of the Year.
Real estate around Grand Avenue is soaring and many believe it’s the next Roosevelt Row where all cool things happen as part of Garfield Historic District and Roosevelt Historic District. Districts near Grand Avenue like Woodland Historic District and Oakland Historic DIstrict are still hidden gems with values increasing more rapidly than other districts. These districts border the core of downtown Phoenix and are walking distance to the State Capitol and other government buildings.
If you’re interested in buying or selling a home in any of these districts or surrounding historic districts, call Laura Boyajian at (602) 400-0008, a Historic Phoenix Real Estate Specialist.