Rozzelles Ferry Landing Set to Open This Summer Despite Delays

When Queen City Nerve last spoke with Greg Willingham in December 2020, he, like many other business owners at the time, was in the midst of a major pivot.

His company, SoundVizion LLC and its subsidiary Jazz N Soul, had recently begun live-streaming virtual concerts, and was seeing some success with it. Though steadfastly COVID-cautious, he was already longing for the days when he could bring live performances back to audiences in person.

“Can we keep moving forward? Yes, we can. Do we want to in this light? No, I don’t think we do,” he told staff writer Pat Moran. “We really need the theaters, clubs and the parks to open up. The musicians [may be] okay streaming, but they really need people, and I think we need each other as well.”

Fast forward nearly four years and Willingham is now on the verge of opening not only an entirely new music venue, but a cluster of businesses that aim to serve as a community hub in the Historic West End.

Located on Rozzelles Ferry Road across from Judson Avenue, Rozzelles Ferry Landing will be a cultural campus that includes an intimate 60-seat music venue, a speakeasy-style bar and lounge, a coffee shop and an outdoor gathering area for families and community members to come together.

Years in the making, Rozzelles Ferry Landing was originally set to open in fall 2023, though Willingham and his team have continuously hit snags. They originally hoped to simply move into the historic buildings located at 2831 Rozzelles Ferry Road and upfit them for their new needs, though permitting restrictions and other obstacles have delayed the process greatly.

Now, Willingham sees a light at the end of the tunnel, as he puts it, with plans to open Rozzelles Ferry Landing before the end of summer. In the lead-up to the opening, we thought our Music Issue would be the perfect time to catch up with Willingham and discuss the process and why it’s all worth it to bring live music back to the West End.

Queen City Nerve: Last we spoke with you, Jazz N Soul was streaming shows with live audiences of five to 10 people. How has the company swung back since venues began to reopen?

Greg Willingham: We’re alive and kicking. We just wrapped up a concert that was a partnership with Blumenthal Performing Arts with Will Downing at the Knight Theater. So we [filled] about 96% of the house. So that was pretty successful.

It’s very exciting. Pre-pandemic, we were partnering with Middle C Jazz, and then the pandemic hit and everyone suffered tremendously. We were blessed to work with the Arts and Science Council to get some funding to do some streaming work during the pandemic. So we still had a lot of music going, but it’s been phenomenal just seeing the excitement around the city with what’s happening with us.

We’ve been doing some pseudo-private shows at Rozelle’s Ferry Landing. We’ve partnered with Middle C. We’re partnering with Society at 229 and Blumenthal Performing Arts. So it’s very exciting.

We’ve seen the jazz scene grow a good bit in recent years, not only due to the arrival of Middle C Jazz but through the work of Jazz N Soul and other actors and agencies. What are your thoughts on that scene currently?

It’s encouraging. I mean, Charlotte has grown quite a bit as well, I think we’re a little shy of 2 million [in the] Metro. So traditionally, a city the size of Charlotte, you would have live music, national [jazz] acts here four or five times a month for the city of this size, in addition to having four or five different clubs. And we’re not quite there yet, but we’re definitely getting there.

Read more: Charlotte Jazz Scene Attracting Bigger Names with Continued Growth

The work that Michael Kitchen is doing with Soul Kitchen is very pivotal in that. He’s bringing a ton of acts. Middle C is still doing what they do, and we’re doing the same thing. So I think Charlotte’s on the right track.

I think now it’s just a matter of establishing a few more rooms in the city so that local artists have an opportunity to be nurtured the way they should and to grow the way that they should. So I think we’re still short a few rooms, but I think everyone’s doing well.

And you’ve been working hard over the last two years to create one of those new rooms. What has the process been like and what are the obstacles you didn’t see coming?

What I didn’t really see is it turned into a land development project. Because the property has two very old buildings on it. And because of the age of the buildings, there’s certain specific parameters that the city requires that need to get done. So I’ve learned a lot about city requirements, parameters, learned a lot about land development, and it’s been a journey.

It’s been quite the journey because we didn’t expect this. But right now we’re right at the end, we’re working with a phenomenal minority-based architecture firm, Neighboring Concepts, that’s been helping us along. It’s helped us with the redesign of the smaller building, which is going to be our little live music hub.

And they’ve helped us with designing a few of the grounds, and hopefully, that will all come to fruition sometime in the beginning of August. So in September, all this construction should be done.

You’ve spoken about how much a role The Excelsior Club played in your own social life when you moved here, making you comfortable in the city. What does it mean to you knowing that history that’s right down the street and playing your part in reviving that atmosphere?

It means a lot because, first and foremost, there’s nothing there right now. On the west side, there’s really no live music spots that are anywhere close to equivalent to what Excelsior was back in the day or even meeting places for older and more seasoned African-Americans. Claiborne’s was another spot that’s now gone.

There’s a lot of spots that are gone. So being able to build out a place like that, that’s not only a comfortable place for middle-aged African-Americans, but a comfortable place for a lot of music lovers in general, on the west side, it means a lot. And I’m from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, originally. I grew up in spaces like this. Not too fancy, but really nice.

Developers are eyeing the West End more and more. Did you feel it was important for you to create this community-centered hub in order to help the area keep some of its identity?

Yeah, absolutely. And that’s why the Historic West End Partners [were so important]. I want to name drop at this point; J’Tanya Adams approached us on this. And that’s specifically why J’Tanya approached us because, honestly, we were looking at a completely different place. Because we just knew we needed a home, and when she approached us on it and gave us the history of the area, what the area used to look like years ago, it just resonated with me and my partner, Keith Anderson.

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We definitely have a lot of passion around it. We’re both in a Black fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated, which is founded on community service. So just based on who we are, our fraternity roots, and the areas that we grew up in — in Milwaukee, in Minneapolis — this is something that we have a lot of passion and love around.

What was it like for you back in the fall to be able to get a taste for what you want to do there by hosting a couple of those pseudo-private shows you mentioned? Was that an inspiration to keep going?

Yeah, and we actually needed it. Again, we walked into this thing with a certain set of beliefs and based on some due diligence, but we were hit with some things that we just had no idea were even floating around out there.

So we actually needed that, and it was cool to see the community support us. And they still do, by the way, even though we don’t do many things there anymore because of the build-out that’s happening. But folks still call us, and they say, “We still want to come in.” The neighborhood supports us. The number of neighbors that have walked over, their children, they’re just ready for it to open.

With all these delays, have you ever had any concerns that this was never going to come to fruition?

Man, every month; every month is a concern. But we’ve reached a point where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel because we have one meeting left with the city and then we can actually activate all of our resources. And we have a ton of support, a ton of resources. So, yes, there’s been plenty of concerns by us and the owners of the property.

What are some lessons that you’ve taken away from this whole process that you’ll remember now as someone who’s now been through this process with so many road bumps, as you move into the next chapter, which is to open?

Well, first of all, I think having a solid vision is important. Having support is very important to build anything that’s new. But what I’m going to take away from this is that, even though we have a ton of expertise in production and promotion and in the music industry in general, land development is a completely different animal. It’s exciting to take a piece of land and develop it and turn it into something that benefits the community.

Is it something that you would ever want to do again?

I think now that I’m prepared, I would definitely do it again.