I attended an event here this morning. It was the agave heritage brunch as part of the agave heritage festival. I was so impressed with this cute and quirky space! Everything was made out of repurposed materials like rebar, tools, sheet pans, old toilets. Very creative! Theres a nice and sizeable indoor and outdoor area! There's a gazebo, a fire pit, great outdoor lighting, cool metal art, and the train goes right by, building up the ambiance! This is felt very Tucson! We spent a perfect Tucson morning here! read more

See all

Great event space. Wonderful outdoor setting. Beautiful service. Food was awesome at Agave heritage festival buffet

Great location, great setting. It was a wonderful wedding, and a super fun backdrop. Love rustic dirt and white lights read more

DO NOT RENT THIS SPACE!!!! The owner is very bad with people especially kids. We were at a party for my MIL and the whole time the owner was walking around making everyone uncomfortable. She was unprofessional to the DJ and guests. She doesn't give you enough information about set up and Fees or restricted areas. She yelled at our kids for running in the dirt lot in the front and said they were unsupervised. That was untrue several parents were outside with the kids. She never said before hand that they could not play out side. She also held the deposit saying the kids ruined her flowerbeds, there are none it is all dirt and weeds. This lady seems to make any excuse to keep the deposit from other reviews. Save yourself the trouble and book at a different venue!! read more

If I could put a zero star I would. Awful customer service. Did not care for business. read more

Nancy is the worst person to deal with. 2 week before our wedding she changed the requirements for our guests to attend our wedding and said it's a private venue she could do whatever she wants. Weeds were still over taking her property and all other plant life was dead. She makes you pay her sound guy even if you don't use him and is very in accommodating to any requests you make with her. We canceled with her venue 2 week before our wedding and had to rent an air bnb to hold the ceremony's at. Best decision of our lives. Still trying to get deposits back from this horrible person/business owner. read more

What a beautiful wedding and plenty of space to roam! Let the pictures capture the smiles and the energy! Great place with all the natural elements and a train whistle to chime in! Such a memorable time and a place! read more

See all

Sure, your wedding might be beautiful - but nothing will be worth the awful experience you will have here working with the owner. If you want a lovely experience planning your wedding and a stress-free wedding day, go elsewhere. read more

If your building isn't available maybe close it until your ready to be , Very unprofessional service over the phone . Terrible customer service overall read more

The contact person was horrible and rude. Trying to plan a baby shower and she would not answer any questions and just asked that I email her. I tried to get quotes and estimates and she refused to give me anything because she said the place does not have AC and would be uncomfortable for guests and staff. Didn't seem interested in my business at all. She to give me her name. I would imagine a world of headaches if you are trying to plan an event here. The number I contacted was 520-882-4969 read more

Last fall, I cancelled my contract here, 4 weeks before a party for my wedding because planning was much too difficult with the owner. Even after reading all the bad reviews I thought I could handle it but I couldn't. I lost my deposit but was relieved to get out from under the never ending rigmarole of planning with the owner. It was bad. read more

The Whistle Stop Depot is truly a unique event venue for so many reasons: It's located in the historical Dunbar Springs Neighborhood. It's a steal warehouse that has been renovated with materials that are either, and/or recycled, reclaimed, or handmade. While I can't speak to the experience of working with the venue on organizing and event, I have attended a few events there: fashion shows, shopping fairs and have enjoyed the space. If you're looking for an event space, I'd recommend to add this spot to your list for sure. read more

Great venue, very cozy, but I have never seen a place more concerned with "the compaints" of guests than actually helping the bride/groom have their day. The lady "running" the place forgot all sorts of decorations, including an amazing dinosaur, as well as dropped the ball on helping break down the tables after, something that was paid for but never delivered on. It is such a shame, this place has a lot of potential but the poor management really distracts from the night. Instead of partying we were cleaning up, tracking down decorations and constantly nagged to be asked if we were having a good time. At the end of the night the people turned real sour and made my Mom wait outside the gate, in the cold/dark/dirt/loud with some remaining decorations while the truck was on it's way; the managers were still inside, warm and comfy, but because we didn't pay for that hour, which was another lie they had it paid till 11 and she was kicked out before 10, she was told to wait outside. I mean, these people have no customer service skills and only focus on their money/ratings. Even the DJ commented on how bad the place was managed, they wouldn't let him use his own equipment. I hope this makes an impact and reveals how misleading these people are. If at all possible, tell these people to not be there the night of your wedding because they will make it awkward and as we are sitting here the next day, all we can talk about is how aweful the management was instead of how beautiful the wedding was. Overpromised and two-faced, these guys need a wake up call. Nancy is a liar and will change the terms as she wishes. Get everything in writing, and even then don't expect her to stick to them. A very poor experience, these guys do not go by their contract and have no concern for your special day. read more

If I could go into detail the negative experience, so much to cancel my daughter's wedding at this venue only 3 weeks away from day. We refused to be forced to conduct business here regardless. We decided to no longer deal with the owner who also is the contact manager for her unprofessional behavior, inexperience running a business and lack of communication. It's great before signing the contract but after that it's downhill. Please do your research and read the reviews on all search engines. If you go here please get everything in writing and in the contract. Do not accept proposals those are not contracts and read the contract thoroughly down to fees and services provided. Make SURE everything from proposal is appropriately documented and agreed in writing by both parties. Do not allow yourself to be bullied and do NOT sign anything until everything is agreed UPON BY BOTH PARTIES. Make sure communication is maintained at all times and keep all your communication filed for record keeping. They will protect you in end MAYBE. I will say you get what you pay for. Trust me spend the extra money not worth your perfect event/wedding being ruined. It is a beautiful venue BUT do not be deceived by it's appearance you will quickly see the ugliness. I hope that the owner learns from this experience and changes her ways but HOPE is a big word. Sorry NOT sorry and don't be surprised by the venue's response. It will be nothing but excuses. I can back everything in this review I will not be bullied or intimidated to silence. And please READ all the negative reviews here, it's like reading my own experience to the owner/management. read more

This location was an amazing place to have a sweet sixteen! We absolutely loved it and our guests were super excited to be there. They all loved the building's interior and exterior. Monique was there to assist us with everything we needed. Dan has the music rocking like a club and the bartender was making us fabulous drinks! 5 stars for sure. Thank you Nancy for opening this location to the public. read more

The Whistle Stop Depot - Whistle Stop Was a great location for a sweet sixteen - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Tucson, Arizona

See all

How come I could not rate this a "zero stars?" Monique, the kind girl that took us on a tour of the place was very nice--I guess that's the one star. Our story is pretty simple. We took a tour of the place and it was cool in a sharp-rusty-object sorta way. It was also available the day weened it to be. Monique was really nice and accommodating. She even told us that Nancy, the owner, understands how "things can happen" and explained to us that our deposit would be refunded in full if we canceled the event. Well, upon requesting our deposit back less than a week after sending it, the owner, Nancy, refused to refund anything! Not even half. Not only was she uncooperative, she was actually quite rude over the phone. She even told us that while "Monique represents the venue," "she represents the finances." What does that even mean? Why is her representative giving us inaccurate information regarding a contract? Additionally, she explained to us that she "understands it's not fair," to not issue a refund, but then wouldn't issue a refund. Above all, this was 10 months out! There was no way that she did not have the time to book the place again. Please don't give this scoundrel your business. read more

This Venue will cause nothing but heartache, stay away! Most unprofessional person I spoke with Nancy is ignorant and will make up any excuse she wants to change the agreement, please stay away from this place. read more

I was a bridesmaid in a wedding at this venue, and I cannot understand for the life of me how this venue is still in business. For starters, the owner kicked guests off of her property until it was exactly 6pm on the dot. She said if we did not get off of her property she would charge the bride and groom extra (it was 5:45pm). She did not allow the DJ in early, or the caters. So while everyone is arriving and finally being allowed in at 6pm everything was being only starting to get set up. Then while the party is happening the whole time she is walking around taking bottles of beer off tables (still full) obviously still being consumed. My final straw with this owner was when she was harassing all of the children that attended the wedding. They were scolded for playing tag, running, just being kids. She complained that they were not being supervised when there were multiple adults (all family) watching all of the children. I highly recommend to find a venue that has a owner that will not harass you and your guests the whole entire night. This venue is beautiful but not worth the frustration you will get with this owner. read more

Outstanding!!! Monique was awesome and our daughters sweet 16 turned out so much better than we could have hoped. The bar was well stocked and Dan's sound system was perfect. 2 weeks later and we are still getting compliments on how much fun everyone had. 5 stars for sure. read more

The Whistle Stop Depot is Tucson's newest event and performance venue. The building itself is crafted of up-cycled repurposed materials and was a personal art project and dream of a few amazing people. Nancy Bender, the owner and visionary bought this warehouse space 10 years ago with an intention of creating a community space in Downtown Tucson that would not only connect and unify the people in Tucson but also to connect and unify people globally. When the warehouse was in escrow, it caught fire and roof was completely burnt. Nancy still moved forward with the sale and rebuilt the property. The result is a Whimsical, Creative, Charming, Hand-Crafted Masterpiece with no details overlooked. The space has movable walls & stage and is set up to accommodate almost any type of event: Live music, Theater, Fashion Shows, Weddings, Private and Corporate Events/Parties... In addition to offering the space as a rental for personal needs the WDS is currently in the process of hosting it's own weekly events that will include movie nights, wine/desert tastings/education, a farmers/craft market, open mic nights and yoga classes. The acoustics are wonderful. Special care and attention was devoted to make sure the audio would sound smooth and clear and is complete with a state of the art sound system that can be complimented with different audio, video, lighting capabilities. It also has a liquor license! And space for food trucks to come in. The inside is 5,000 sf and can accommodate 344 people including staff and the outside holds 1000 people. No idea is too big or too small! Contact them. :) read more

What an awesome place to meet w friends and family, I would recommend to anybody looking for a great spot to party.

The space is unique, but dealing with the management is a nightmare. Be sure to get everything in writing and be prepared for last minute charges. There are constant requests and demands made by the management prior to the event and zero customer service on their side. During our event Whistle Stop management and employees ate, drank, and mingled with guests while bathrooms were unattended and trash piled up. At the time of our event there was no easy entry into the building and guests needed to carefully make their way over gravel and construction debris to get inside. Our guests had trouble opening the bathroom doors and many were locked inside the "stalls". While we were setting up the management was rude and extremely unprofessional with our staff. This is just a small list of the problems we encountered there. The management tries to pull this venue off for large events, but technically (according to the City) their maximum occupancy was for only 10 people at the time of our event for the following reasons: it is zoned with the city as a warehouse, they do not have liability insurance, there are no sprinklers installed, and there is no heat in the building. I have worked in Tucson for many years at locations all over town. Never have I been treated so poorly or with such disrespect from a venue. I would tell all event planners to avoid this location and brides to run for their lives! read more

We had our wedding here in April, 2015 and the space was perfect. We held the ceremony outside and the reception inside, and every space had so much to look at! The reception easily held our 150 guests and had plenty of extra room for the buffet, bar, dance floor, and catering set up. The train went by all night, adding to the ambiance. I would recommend Whistle Stop Depot for a wedding that is nothing like your typical experience. Rebecca from Urban Ranch Events was our coordinator for the wedding and she (plus her staff) were a dream to work with as well. read more

My fiancée and I booked our wedding reception at the Whistle Stop in September 2017. The venue itself is unique, creative, and beautiful. I would recommend *going*to an event here. But, unless you have hired someone to book/manage/plan your event and talk to the owner of the venue for you, I would NOT recommend BOOKING an event here. Especially for an event as special and potentially stressful as a wedding or reception. Our first meetings to see the venue and talk with the owner to create an initial proposal went well. We were impressed with the space and with the apparent flexibility in being able to customize the space how we wanted to. The pricing was more than fair, the location was great, and the owner and the lead staffer seemed pleasant. Even though the venue is beautiful and the prices are reasonable, the management needs to improve their customer service skills. The owner of the venue is the person with whom all of the communication & collaboration takes place. This is helpful in reducing bureaucracy, but awful in that if something goes awry, there is no one else to report the issue to. Our unfortunate situation unfolded like so: We booked with the Whistle Stop in September. In November, the owner, our florist, and my fiance and I all came to an agreement about a layout for floral arrangements which involved suspending them from the air on a cable. By January, this was still the plan and it had been paid for with the florist. TWO WEEKS before the event, at the end of January, the owner expressed strong reservations and opposition to the plan. I called for clarification since the emailing didn't seem very smooth. The phone call began alright, but quickly devolved into me being *screamed* at over the phone. I was in such shock and so uncomfortable, I put my phone on speaker so my friend who was in the room could hear. The owner was yelling into the phone about how I was questioning her, putting her building "that [she] poured a million dollars into" in jeopardy, etc.. I was close to tears just from the shock and frustration, but I remained polite and collected and explained I only needed some questions answered. She still was hostile and cut me off and talked over me repeatedly. Near the end of the conversation, she was insulting and said she was sorry that I was "having trouble understanding" her issues. I COMPLETELY understand a business needing to look out for itself by curbing liabilities.. But it is entirely unacceptable to change months-old plans for someone's wedding reception *two weeks* before the event, after all relevant vendors have been paid. I had to re-strategize with the florist (In Full Bloom--cannot recommend enough!) and she was an angel with working with me without changing budget since she had been paid already. If In Full Bloom hadn't been so awesome, I really don't know what I would have done. To say that the coordination and lack of planning on the Whistle Stop's part was disappointing would be an understatement. And the way I was talked to on the phone was unbelievably hurtful and unprofessional. At the end of the night of the reception, I mentioned the awful phone call with the owner to the lead staffer. The lead staffer that the owner's temperament is something that needs to be worked on and has been an issue in the past. Not good. The other issues included the staff eating our catered dinner without checking in about it. We had ordered a set number of plates, and multiple staff members were eating our catered dinner. Thankfully, there was enough to go around, but my husband and I thought this was very rude and not professional. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or need more info. read more

The owner, Nancy Bender and I had a friendship for over 4 years, she promised me I could have my wedding at the Whistle Stop. Nancy's requirements was that I pay her employee, her sound man, a 100$ cleaning fee and a fee for the champagne. Less than 2 weeks prior to my wedding Nancy decided to change her agreement and impose over a thousand dollars in fees and rules, threatening me if I did not sign this new contract my wedding would be canceled. I believe this was because she did not like the type of people I invited to my wedding. We invited 300 guests and I had no other recourse but to move my wedding 10 days prior to the date to another venue. I DO NOT recommend this venue because of the difficulty dealing with the owner. This was an awful experience for my husband and I and our families and friends to endure which I would not wish on anyone. I URGE you to get a SIGNED CONTRACT "IF" you want to book an event at this location. read more

Although this venue is nice, and the coordinator that came to the rescue in the end, Monique, was wonderful. The aspect of working with the owner of this facility was atrocious. I was the maid of honor for my best friend's wedding at the end of October. The bride had been working with the owner for approx. 18mo prior to the event and not once during this timeframe from tour, up to the DAY OF THE WEDDING was there a consistent answer from her about things ranging from what was available for use, to the price of things. The only constant was her inability to not only remember what she promised to my friend, but to follow through on what she finally agreed upon. This facility cost around $2k, and while she stated originally that it would be fine to avoid expensive DJ costs by simply plugging in our own music storage system to their sound system, in the end she stated that we would HAVE to use her sound person and oh by the way that's another $300, but he's not an actual DJ so you still need to provide someone who will run the music while he is only in charge of essentially turning on the equipment and microphones. In the original contract that was signed there was no start or stop time written, nor was there any documentation about the number of hours that was allotted for the day, or a price point for going over those set hours. The bride came up with a start time of 4pm so the owner suggested she have the set up time for chairs, etc. be at 11AM. However, the week of the wedding she told her that since we are starting at 11AM that we only have the facility for 10hrs so we would have to be completely out of the facility by 9pm. When the concern with this was expressed to the coordinator, Monique, she tried to do her best to work with us and stated she would as the owner if it would be ok if we stayed until 10pm as pick up for tables and chairs had already been scheduled for 10:15pm. The day before the wedding the coordinator finally got her answer and had to tell us that in order to stay until 10 we would have to pay another $125, which we begrudgingly paid. During the initial tour the owner said brides often use their piano and balcony/staircase for entrance to the ceremony, then two weeks before she stated "oh well normally that's an extra charge, but I suppose we can make an exception for you" she also stated that in order to use the piano we would have to pay someone to have it tuned. Luckily it didn't need tuning, but had it needed that, it would have been another charge upwards of $300. We were told that during the change over from ceremony to reception there would be a cocktail hour where popcorn and an open drink station for non-alcoholic drinks could be provided as well as a signature drink. At the rehearsal we were told by the way the popcorn machine is down. Three hours before the ceremony we were told there would be no signature drink, and if we still wanted to provide sodas for the guests that they would have be stored in their ice chests on the outside porch, instead of at the bar. Five days before the ceremony we were told if we wanted the ceremony and reception set up in under 2hrs we would have to ask some of the guests to help. Although our families seemed to have no problem helping, it seems ridiculous to expect a GUEST to move around tables and chairs because the owner doesn't provide enough staff. Essentially the coordinator Monique and the look of the facility is it's only saving grace. But, unless you are prepared to hire your own staff and wedding coordinator to deal with the headaches, record every conversation and be prepared to shell out way more money than you were initially quoted, I'd suggest looking or another spot. Thank you Monique for all your help. You are a great coordinator and I hope you get the opportunity to work with a more capable owner. read more

The Whistle Stop is a re-purposed depot warehouse that has been morphed into one of the most intriguing event spaces I've seen in the area. The courtyard, just shabby enough to be chic, can accommodate food trucks and outdoor entertainment, and the space itself glows with a bright and airy desert flair. I attended a well-crafted Aveda fashion show here, and the creative crew used every inch of the enormous building, setting up a salon on the west end and a bright, visually appealing stage at the other. The entire space is smooth polished concrete. The lighting was theatrical and intimate. A spacious outdoor patio wraps around two sides of the building. The lobby area is wheelchair accessible and opens dramatically onto the lofty interior. A cupola area can be accessed by a spiral staircase, and the acrobats made great use of this little heavenly catwalk. The restrooms boast the most creative doors I've seen in this town, and are corrugated metal interior industrial silos. Wow! I hope creative couples discover Whistle Stop as a wedding venue, and I am dying to hear a fantastic band play here. The acoustics were sharp and surprisingly free of "warehouse echo." I hope the Whistle Stop survives the LINKS project because this is a creative mecca! read more

DO NOT HOLD YOUR EVENT HERE!!! It is not ready. The owner was difficult to work with and practices shotty business processes. Specifically cannot seem to acquire proper licensing and permits from City in order to hold events here. Sometimes the most creative, artistic brains prohibit learning valuable people skills. If you are a coordinator that likes roughing it and doing all the work yourself, and then being ambushed a few hours before your event, then this is the place for you. read more

Rented a room out for two nights after the first night I left the room for a few hours to go explore the surroundings leaving my phone charging when I returned to my room my phone and the charger was missing and the room had been cleaned I complained to the staff and managers explaining what had happened but I was told there's nothing they could do about it although I was 100% sure I had left my phone in the room later that day I went to the pool with intentions to go for a swim but stopped in my tracks once I seen the pool literally speaking there were over 100 flies in the pool some dead and some alive I complained again to the staff upon check out but was told they cleaned the pool that day there's nothing they could do about it I showed the staff at the front desk the photos and videos I took of the flies but was again but pushed away the staff was very rude would never stay at the hotel again they did nothing to make my bad stay right be aware if you interested in booking and make sure to hide your valuables or keep them in your car the maids are theirs and the staff with do nothing to help you get back your belongs read more