Photo via Nectar’s Facebook

Legendary Burlington, Vt. music venue Nectar’s is under new ownership. The Main Street venue is known around the country as the place that jump-started the jamband staple Phish, who now sell out arenas, amphitheaters and legendary venues some 40 years later.

The new owners of Nectar’s, which has been for sale for years, plan to keep the music, bar and fare of the highest quality while expanding business operations. According to the Burlington Free Press, managing partner Ed Maier said the venue’s new ownership started on July 26, and the ownership group includes silent partners.

“I’m a huge music fan as well as being in the industry,” Maier said. “I have the right group of people that came together to make this happen.”

Nectar’s original owners included Noel Donnellan, Chris Walsh, Jason Gelrud and Peter Picard. Walsh was part of the team that bought the business from founder Nectar Rorris in 2003, who opened Nectar’s in 1975.

“It can’t be any more legendary,” Maier continued. “There’s not a lot of bands that have venues that [are] their little mecca, their home base.”

As far as changes to the venues, Vermont lighting designer Jason “Liggy” Liggett will upgrade the stage lighting at Nectar’s and upstairs at Metronome, which was included in the deal. The bar at Metronome will also be replaced; additionally, Nectar’s will create a podcast studio partnered with Phish lyricist Tom Marshall’s Osiris Media. They will also equip the location to create 4K streaming of sold-out and free concerts, so fans can enjoy the sets from home.

Maier, who was drawn to Vermont thanks to Phish, is also working on Nectar’s Presents, a new promotional arm of the brand that will work with new acts and promote said acts in multiple venues in multiple states.

There will also be a talent-management angle of Nectar’s Presents to be called APON Artists, featuring musicians from the Omni and AFT rosters, including Goose, Mystic Bowie’s Talking Dreads and Joe Samba.