Almost four years to the day after opening its multi-faceted shop dealing in records, vintage clothing and more in East Nashville's Riverside Village, the Fond Object crew is gearing up for a second location downtown. They've planned a soft opening for March 24 in the building at 535 Fourth Ave. S. — across Lea Avenue from Rocketown, the site was most recently home to Turnip Green Creative Reuse and the Lost Boys Gallery before that. A grand opening is planned for Record Store Day 2017.

In the run up to the grand opening, on April 22, the new store will be open noon-7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday, with hours mirroring the original store's (11 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday) after that.

Fond Object co-founder Jem Cohen tells the Scene, "In Riverside Village, it went from being an art studio where the vintage side was, to the front room being a clothing boutique for Poni [Silver] where she was making her clothes, to it now being an art gallery. Everything is constantly developing and changing with what’s going on at the time. I like that vibe."

The first phase, says Cohen, is to get the new record store up and running, while announcing its presence with a slew of all-ages shows (dates and lineups are TBA at press time). Vintage clothing and other vintage goods are slated to move in soon after, and they've reserved space to display visual art.

In a nod to Lower Broadway honky-tonks like Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and Robert's Western World (which are only five blocks to the north), the new Fond Object location includes a stage inside the front window. This offers flexibility to host intimate in-store gigs as well as bigger outdoor shows in the spirit of their backyard happenings in Riverside Village.

"It’ll still be like the kind of one-stop shop, psychedelic department store vibe," Cohen says. "It’s incredible how it’s similar to what we have now, just downtown. Super bizarre. There’s a parking lot instead of a backyard, but the parking lot’s between two buildings, so it’s kind of private and can fit like a thousand people just like the backyard can."

At 2,400 square feet, the Fourth Avenue space is about 400 square feet bigger than the Riverside Village shop (though Cohen says it feels "about four times larger," thanks to higher ceilings and a more open layout). Future plans include possibly opening a small cafe, and definitely lighting a fire under the Fond Object Records label, whose only release so far was 2016's 10th anniversary reissue of The Ettes' Shake the Dust.

Cohen and his business partners are currently in talks with Fond Object's landlord in Riverside Village, Lance Bloom of CB Richard Ellis, Inc., about the future of that space — which could potentially be absorbed by the proposed development along that section of McGavock Pike. Some plans that have floated in the past include moving the store into the nearby building that housed Bailey & Cato, but details have not been finalized.

"As of right now, we’ll have two stores," says Cohen. "This is where it started. This is where I live. I love this neighborhood. This is where Jeff [Pettit], my partner in the store, lives. This is our neighborhood. We would love to stay in our building and just keep it running up here, and bring cool stuff downtown as well."

In any case, Cohen expects to stay in the Fourth Avenue location for a long time. It's within a few blocks of other record stores (like the long-running Lawrence Records and Ernest Tubb Record Shop on Broadway, Third Man Records on Seventh Avenue, which celebrated its seventh anniversary in July 2016, and The Vinyl Bunker, which Muddy Roots Music's Jason Galaz opened inside the L&C Tower's parking garage in August 2016) and closer to other businesses like Bar Sovereign, 3rd & Lindsley and Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint. That proximity, combined with several available properties in the surrounding blocks, adds to Cohen's feeling that the neighborhood could become a foothold for locally owned small businesses within sight of the Music City Center and one of the city's most tourist-centric districts.

"I think to a lot of people it feels like [the neighborhood is] off-limits," he says, "or to the higher-end people, it’s like ‘Eh, I’ll wait on it.’ So there’s this moment, right now I feel like, where locals can get in there and open their stores and their bars and their restaurants, whatever they want to do. A call to arms! A call to action! Everyone, let’s go downtown!"