CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The owner of Tremont Music Hall is expecting 1,500 people to come through his doors Saturday night, one last time.
“It's been a painful process, owning the place for five years, it's like losing a child,” owner John Hayes said.
The building that's housed Tremont Music Hall since 1995 has been bought forcing the hall's closure.
“That mania for development has finally reached us,” Hayes said.
As the South End neighborhood keeps growing, and sees new developments approved by the city, the music hall and some of its neighbors like common market, the boulevard at South End, and black sheep, are among some of the businesses to feel the impact.
But the closure of this venue is signifying something even greater to those we spoke with.
“It's a loss to the arts community and I think anybody would say that arts, music is really the heartbeat of the city and we're losing that here in Charlotte and with development it feels like that's getting pushed out,” he said.
“Within the past couple years, losing venues, losing, like fat city, a few years back, a couple of the art museums around Noda just watching that unfold over the years is heartbreaking,” Hayes said.
“This is my home away from home, it always has been,” Kim Howell, who’s been attending shows at Tremont for ten years, said.
“It’s like a landmark, it’s a big deal,” Dixon Patterson and his bandmate Matt Daigle have been coming to Tremont for year to play at the venue.
Many are hoping the city of Charlotte moves forward with its development in a more balanced way.
“Charlotte's expanding, and that's great, you know financially, that's really good for the city at the same time you're losing out on a lot of artisitc elements that used to be beautiful,” Patterson said.