Peace Center holds 'biggest announcement in decades' about new music club, studio and more

The Peace Center has announced plans for major renovations to its six-acre campus in downtown Greenville with the repurposing of three buildings for a flat-floor music club, an "intimate listening room," a podcast and recording studio, and an artist dorm to come by 2024. 

Total cost of the project, dubbed AMP for "A Music Project," will run up to $36 million, and the renovations are expected to begin by early 2023.  

The Peace Center is seeking state tax credits to finance the project. Those credits are to help the rehabilitation and redevelopment of abandoned textile mill sites in South Carolina. 

The AMP project was created with the intention to blend the Peace Center campus together, attract bigger-name artists to Greenville and diversify the acts and visitors to the area, officials said during a press conference Sept. 13.

It will feature three substantial upgrades. 

The Mockingbird at the Peace Center

The Mockingbird, one of those, is to be a casual listening lounge with an intimate setting for artists and audiences to connect on the campus at South Main Street. 

Since Genevieve's, a bar, pub and music space at the Peace Center, is available only when the concert hall is not in use, The Mockingbird is intended to be a hot spot for curated music on a stage backed by a glass wall on a regular basis. 

It is to bear from a simple bar with a band, officials said, and will have a capacity of 250.

The 5,482-square-foot interior architecture will feature a bar, a mix of hardwood and tile floors with tin ceilings and a signature viewing window on the side of the building facing foot traffic walking down Main Street. 

Coach Music Factory at Peace Center

Coach Music Factory at the Peace Center is to be a music hall that takes inspiration from The 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., and The Orange Peel in Ashville, North Carolina. 

The venue will be designed with three tiers, a patio, an outdoor balcony that wraps around the second floor, and a bar on each level, totaling 8,513 square feet. It will have a capacity of about 1,300.

The courtyard between the Coach Factory and Gunther Theatre will serve as a lobby and entranceway into the venue. 

The Studio at the Peace Center

The Studio at the Peace Center is to be an artist's sanctuary, featuring a professional podcast and music studio catered to visiting and local musicians with collaboration rooms for writing and education. 

In total, the loft-style space will feature three bedrooms and three bathrooms spanning 3,800 square feet along South Main Street. 

"What we're trying to do is create this wonderful place for artists who want to come relax, do a podcast with us, and maybe do a recording," said Megan Riegel, CEO at the Peace Center. "We want to create this vibe of a music town for Greenville." 

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