The group that developed and runs Orion Amphitheater, tvg hospitality, had planned to open a new 350-capacity downtown Huntsville music venue this summer, but that didn’t happen.

Located at 108 Cleveland Ave. N.W. near Furniture Factory Bar & Grill and just off Meridian Street, the space was formerly home to A.M. Booth’s Lumberyard, a now-defunct bar, restaurant and event space.

Halfway through October, the space remains closed-up. One of those temporary construction privacy walls covers a stretch of the façade.

Now, tvg (all lowercase and short for “the venue group”) is targeting a spring 2023 opening. And the venue’s name has been tweaked slightly too, from Meridian Social Club to Meridian Arts Club.

A somewhat locally common assumption is Meridian construction was paused due to operational capacity at Orion. In other words, so tvg could focus resources into getting the amphitheater up and running on time for its spring debut.

But the really cause of the delay isn’t quite so dramatic. It’s simply that quintessential pandemic-era culprit again, supply chain issues, says tvg cofounder Ben Lovett, who’s also a member of British folk-pop band Mumford & Sons.

“The construction market is absolutely crazy out there right now,” Lovett says. “Like, electrical things getting manufactured overseas are now three to six months (to get them) when they would have been a month. That’s just to get everything you need to start building.”

Lovett adds, “Huntsville is so rapidly growing that it’s highly competitive to get tradesmen and tradeswomen to do the work. So with our project, which I guess in the grand scheme of things is quite humble and small next to new hotels (and other larger developments) getting built all around us, it’s been hard to lock in the subcontractors. And not as easy as we had anticipated when we first came out with the statement of when it was going to open.”

Artist renderings for the Meridian show interior design mixing natural materials with modern style. The exterior, including a sprawling rustic space out-back with an outdoor stage, will remain largely intact, Lovett says. Notable events that took place there back when it was A.M. Booth’s Lumberyard include the inaugural Microwave Dave Day concert in 2015.

As far as Meridian’s current progress goes, the interior space has been cleared out, Lovett says. Some electrical and plumbing work has been done. “And we’ve showed up some of the structural too, so we’re just about to start framing it out,” Lovett says. “Right now, it just looks like a lot of work has been done behind the scenes, creating the infrastructure to do it. But it will start to take shape now fairly quickly.”

The Meridian, already a promising project because of tvg’s connections and experience, has become critical for Huntsville live music since AL.com first reported plans for the venue in February. The recent closing of SideTracks Music Hall, which during its five-year run brought in rising touring bands (Greta Van Fleet, Shovels + Rope, etc.), top local songwriters (Rob Aldridge, Wanda Wesolowski) and hosted buzzy new local festivals (Sluice Fest), leaves a void for a dedicated full-time, club-sized Huntsville venue.

Some shows originally booked for SideTracks were moved to Furniture Factory’s outdoor stage, including a well-attended bill featuring ’90s Birmingham rockers Brother Cane and former Motley Crue singer John Corabi. Furniture Factory owner Mark Komara also owned SideTracks. But because of weather risks, putting on touring-level outdoor shows a roll of the dice and come winter not viable.

There’s Electric Belle at Stovehouse, the popular West Huntsville entertainment/dining complex. But that fairly new 300-capacity room’s mainly done local shows and hasn’t found footing as a touring-level venue yet. At a capacity of around 1,600, Von Braun Center’s gleaming Mars Music Hall is a huge step up and too big for many bands that played SideTracks.

Music fans who’ve resided in Huntsville a while will recall 2013 to 2017 as a dark time for touring-level-small-venue shows in Huntsville. That was the period between the closing of Crossroads, the formerly long-running club-sized venue, and SideTracks’ opening.

“When it comes to venues of this capacity, there really aren’t many,” Lovett says of Huntsville’s current venue mix. He says tvg remains “fully committed” to the Meridian Arts Center project. “SideTracks going away since we first planned on doing this is even more reason than ever to be doing it.”

Once it’s open, Meridian Arts Center will host around 12 to 15 live shows a month. A few of those will be DJ sets and electronic artists. Ticket prices for many touring shows will be in the $15 to $20 range, Lovett says. “What you get from the smaller venues,” Lovett says, “is lower ticket prices, more affordable drinks, it’s more relaxed. We’re going to encourage the discovery (of new music) a lot more.”

Lovett says at a club-level show, “It’s on that artist to go and basically show people what they’re about. Explain what their songs are about and explain that backstory. Sit at the merch desk and meet these people. This is the graft of getting it all going as a musician and the venue is a key part of that.”

While most of the artists will be touring level (Huntsville is nicely situated for routing between Nashville and Birmingham), top local original-music-focused acts will get a shot to rock the Meridian’s stage. But not just anybody will be able to get a gig there, locally or touring. “There’ll be a bit of curation going on,” Lovett says. The goal is for local music fans to eventually trust that whatever band is playing Meridian is worth hearing.

Huntsville music is clearly ascending. That goes from the top (Orion, Mars Music Hall) on down (a new wave of young bands, fresh festival concepts) Enough so Rolling Stone recently did a feature on Huntsville, mostly focusing on Orion. In addition to its classic coliseum-inspired design, Orion is making industry waves by bringing stars whose tours previously skipped over Huntsville, like Stevie Nicks and Jack White, to the city

Still, Huntsville’s still never produced its own Alabama Shakes. Meaning, a band from here that’s become legitimately mainstream famous. Not a single one.

But if a young Huntsville band gets a big enough local following they can sell-out Meridian, it’s likely to generate notice beyond the city, Lovett says. “Because from that point, I would expect that music industry folks will come in from Nashville and from Atlanta to scout. And maybe (that local artist) picks up their booking agent that way, or their manager, or their record label. That’s exciting to me. I’ve discovered artists in these types of rooms many, many times.”

And here’s where swapping out “Social” for “Arts” in the venue name comes in. Lovett says Meridian’s programming will extend beyond music. The space is now being conceived as a place to also host comedy shows, films, arts events, etc. Also linguistically, “Arts Club” cans more communal and inclusive than “Social Club,” which has a tinge of elitism to it. The goal is for Meridian to be a “vessel for culture,” Lovett says, not just a place for bands to play.

Lovett asserts there’ve been advantages to the delayed opening. For one, better understanding Huntsville’s entertainment needs and lay-of-the-land. For example, tvg had planned on including a wood-fired pizzeria called Ferrovia as part of the Meridian concept. They’ve since decided Huntsville has enough compelling pizza options and have pivoted to doing Southern-tinged cuisine with family style portions.

That new restaurant at Meridian will be called In Horto, which is Latin for “in the garden.” Tvg already has an In Horto location in London. The Huntsville version will mark the first time tvg has brought one of their U.K. concepts to the U.S.

The Huntsville menu will be different and play off local flavors and foods. But as a point of reference, London In Horto menu items include: roast chicken with garlic potatoes and leeks, slow cooked lamb shoulder and harissa vegetables and pork belly, spiced baked beans and bacon.

Unlike the common model of a club-sized venue handling booking in-house, Meridian will rely on third party promoters. It’s the format for Orion as well, which receives inbound requests from promoters like Live Nation and AEG and others to host their shows they’re bringing into Huntsville. Orion doesn’t book the artists themselves. With the Meridian, tvg plans to work with local independent promoters as well as the nationals.

“It won’t be just us directly working artists,” Lovett says, “because the minute we do that it becomes completely closed as a loop. And you don’t end up with as many diverse ears on the program. This is how we’ve run our other small venues in London.”

In addition to Orion, overseen by local arm Huntsville Venue Group, has venue/hospitality projects in London, Austin, Texas, Washington D.C. Early this year, tvg secured $50 million in new funding to expand its venue portfolio and staff. That financing includes participation from music-biz heavyweights – including Irving Azoff, whose managed superstar bands like Van Halen and Eagles and helmed major-labels, Live Nation and Ticketmaster. In February, Lovett told AL.com tvg has allocated $15 million of the new $50 million funding towards their Huntsville projects, including Meridian Social Club and the Apollo Park being built around Orion Amphitheater.

Being able to pack a small room and convert dozens of new fans is a key moment for a rising touring band. And getting a fanbase in a city at the level helps develop the next wave of acts to play that’s city’s larger venues one day potentially. Lovett experienced it in the early days of Mumford & Sons.

The Luminaire, a since shuttered London venue about the same capacity as Meridian, was a pivotal proving ground for Mumford, before they grew into Grammy-winning, movie-star-marrying, arena-filling stars.

“At that size, that’s the first time that you’re not recognizing everyone in the audience,” Lovett recalls wistfully of his band’s Luminaire shows. “Like, there were probably 100 people in the audience who were not friends, family, or friends of family. They’d discovered us on Myspace. And I can transport myself onto that stage right now and remember exactly what it felt like to see a stranger singing our songs back to us. It’s one thing to get your friends and family to be in your corner. It’s another when you have no idea what their name is and they’re into what you’re doing. It’s a total critical moment in the journey of every artist.”

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