WorkPlay has announced three concerts for its reopening next year in Birmingham, after the Southside entertainment complex has undergone substantial renovations.

WorkPlay, 500 23rd St. South, will present Americana singer-songwriter John Paul White on Feb. 10, with opening act Elizabeth Moen. Tickets for the 7 p.m. show are on sale now via See Tickets, priced at $22 for general admission, plus a $6.24 service charge.

“We’re kicking things off with an Alabama legend,” WorkPlay organizers said on the venue’s Facebook page. White is set to perform at the venue’s theater, which can hold about 450 people.

White, a Florence resident, initially made his fame as part of a Grammy-winning duo, The Civil Wars. He’s now a solo artist with three studio albums to his credit, as well as the co-owner of Single Lock Records in the Shoals. White, 51, has performed in Birmingham several times over the years, most recently playing an April 6 concert with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra at the Alys Stephens Center.

On Nov. 29, White hosted a “Home for the Holidays” concert at Norton Auditorium in Florence, appearing on a bill with artists that ranged from Maggie Rose to Ty Herndon to the Secret Sisters.

Two hardcore rock shows are on the agenda for WorkPlay, as well:

• Reclaim the Empyre, with Holy+Gold, Stay Lost, Meadows band, and Commodity; Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the show are $12 general admission via See Tickets, plus a $5.36 service charge. Reclaim the Empyre, a band from Birmingham, features singer Andrew Neill, drummer Lee Turner, bassist Caleb Hatcher and guitarists Hayden Boyet and Josh Williams.
• Merauder, with Legion, Forced Neglect, Cold Hard Steel and Lethal Method; Feb. 17 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the show are $18 general admission via See Tickets, plus a $5.83 service charge. Merauder, a metalcore band from New York City, was formed in the 1990s and is led by singer Jorge Rosado.

Both of these shows are scheduled for the WorkPlay canteen, apparently a new venue at the 30,000-square foot complex.

Five business partners — Johnny Grimes, Shane Hopson, Ben Jackson, Colby Mouchette and Josh Williams — bought WorkPlay this fall for $3.6 million from previous owners Tom Williams Jr. and his wife, Courtney Allison Williams. The new team closed the deal on Oct. 25 and started working on the property almost immediately.

READ: Birmingham’s WorkPlay ready for a revival, after $3.6 million sale to new owners

Nearly everything under WorkPlay’s roof is getting a makeover, from the floors to the ceilings, Grimes said. That includes carpeting, lights, seating, recording equipment, film gear, a PA system for the soundstage and more. The bathrooms will get a major overhaul and more may be added to the layout, he said. WorkPlay’s patio will get a glow-up, as well.

WorkPlay’s name will stay the same, Grimes told AL.com, and its key elements will remain intact: A bar, a 450-capacity theater, a movie soundstage, a recording studio, office space and a patio. The size of the primary bar will triple, however, and receive a new name: The Harmonic at WorkPlay. The bar’s design will be updated — the Death & Co. bar in Denver is a major inspiration for that, Grimes said — and a second bar will be added for events in the soundstage. (It doubles as a concert venue that can hold more than 800 people.)

Grimes is a managing partner at Furnace Fest, the annual hardcore music festival at Birmingham’s Sloss Furnaces. He’s also the owner of Wheelhouse Salon and involved in other business ventures. When WorkPlay is ready to roll again, Grimes said, the partners will have “well over $4 million” into the deal.

WorkPlay was founded more than two decades ago by the Hunter brothers — Alan, Hugh, Randy and Blake — who brainstormed the overall concept and opened the venue in 2001, in a former warehouse at the corner of 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue South.

WorkPlay quickly became a bustling hub of activity, but the venue’s momentum began to slow in 2008 and the venue started to feel the economic pinch. A building foreclosure loomed, Alan Hunter told AL.com, and he and his brothers started to search for a buyer for WorkPlay.

Tom Williams Jr. and his brother Clark Williams — sons of the late Tom Williams and former vice presidents at one of Birmingham’s largest auto dealerships — came to WorkPlay’s rescue, buying the complex in 2011 and vowing to turn it around. Clark remained a partner and Tom Williams Jr. and his wife were at WorkPlay’s helm, handling the business day-to-day.

Under the Williams regime, WorkPlay began to thrive again, with a concert calendar that included acts such as Jack White, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Moon Taxi, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Shakey Graves, Against Me!, Hurray for the Riff Raff and many more. Special events revved up and the other aspects of WorkPlay followed suit.

WorkPlay’s agenda has been relatively quiet in recent years, especially after the coronavirus pandemic brought the concert industry to a near-standstill in 2020. If WorkPlay has seemed sleepy of late, Grimes and his partners aim to change all that.

“A lot’s on the line,” Grimes told AL.com. “There are no huge, deep pockets here. It’s a group of passionate people who care about the arts and music scene in Birmingham. … The team here is highly capable, and ready to come together and contribute to the success of this business.”