Steve Smith’s ‘Sovereign’ to Rock Grand Center
Date Posted: December 20, 2019
Posted In: Projects,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Grand Center, the cultural epicenter of St. Louis, is about to get down and dirty.
A new concert venue is on its way, with operators eyeing an opening in early 2021. The Sovereign will be located in a a warehouse building at 3300 Washington Boulevard that had been home to an auto parts supplier.
The Sovereign is the brainchild of Lawrence Group CEO Steve Smith, who owns the building, and Old Rock House managing partner Tim Weber.
The arts district is already home to venues including the Fox Theatre, Powell Symphony Hall, Jazz St. Louis, the Sheldon Concert Hall & Art Galleries, the Grandel, .Zack, High Low and more. Weber says the Sovereign is a missing link for both Grand Center and the St. Louis music scene.
“Grand Center has done so much for the arts,” he says. “This is a little bit more of a commercial space that will attract a super-diverse crowd who’ll come in and experience more of Grand Center. It’s something they just don’t have now — a good old-fashioned rock club.”
The Sovereign, with a general-admission capacity of 1,200, fills a niche between venues the size of the Old Rock House and the Pageant, or Old Rock House and Delmar Hall.