A $2.5 million expansion is planned for The Nash, a jazz performance venue and learning space on Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix.

Plans include renovations of the existing jazz club, plus a new 32,000-square-foot jazz education center, paid for in part with a $1 million gift from the John Dawson Foundation.

“And so for us, making a jazz center for education, it helps us preserve the legacy of jazz that is here in our country, but also in our state," said Naquana Borrero with The Nash.

The new teaching center is expected to boost The Nash’s educational programming by 50%.