New era, familiar vibe: Popular Sixth Avenue music venue changes hands in recent sale
After years tied to a Tacoma music venue, Rachel Hogan decided it was time to pass the torch.
Hogan, through affiliated business entity Old Victory Corp., purchased Jazzbones, 2803 Sixth Ave., in 2017 years after first bar-tending at the site.
Hogan’s business entity sold the property in mid-January to an LLC affiliated with Keanu Songcuan of Milton.
“That was one of my first bar-tending jobs,” she told The News Tribune in a phone interview Monday. “I was 21. I’m now 44.”
“A couple of the employees have worked for all of the different owners there,” she added. “And so we’ve seen different transitions. But, I think it’ll be good to have a younger demographic.”
Songcuan, who declined to share his age, told The News Tribune in a phone interview on Tuesday, “I want Jazzbones to be known as the destination bar of Tacoma.”
“I have done business with Rachel in the past, so the opportunity presented itself, and Rachel wanted to take a little bit of a step back. But she’s still there, and very much a part of Jazzbones as a whole,” he said.
The venue is not his only business. He noted he’s also involved in construction and real estate investment.
“I know with Rachel, she was doing everything on her own. She was cooking, booking shows, helping out with the bar, doing all the orders,” he said. “I have more of a staff in place to allow me to run things at a little bit higher occupancy and doing more with it without getting burned out.”
He hopes to be open more days and to broaden the types of performances, “including more types of music ... One night can be a rock show, and another night can a hip hop show, and then another night a jazz show.”
“It’s obviously going to be a learning curve for me,” he said, but the goal is “to get more people in the door, and more people on Sixth Ave helps with economic development of the area as a whole.”
Hogan said that she’s excited for the venue’s future.
“He’s got some really, really good shows that we haven’t announced yet ... I have the calendar booked out through August and September right now,” she said.
Asked what she was going to do next, for now she says she continues to oversee the venue to help out.
“I’m still doing all the booking, and I still go in and I’ve been training the new ownership,” she said.
The new arrangement will help her spend more time with her father, who lives out of state.
“I think I’m going to take a little bit of time to think about (what’s next), but I already know that I’m the type of person that can’t sit in my house or sit still. I’m going to do something,” she added. “I just don’t know what, yet.”
UPDATE: A previous version of this article listed an incorrect sale price. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 11:55 AM.
