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Glenn Wilhelm stands inside the Roxy in downtown Rochester on a sunny afternoon, a bottle of Windex in hand.
“It’s a good sign that the sawdust is coming to an end and the cleanup is starting,” he notes with a laugh.
The Roxy, the metro area’s newest concert venue, is set to open June 16-17 with two sold-out nights of piano duels. The 18,000 square foot site on Walnut Blvd. built as a church in 1850 and most importantly the home of the Village Shoe Inn already has a stacked schedule of national acts (Colin Raye, Aaron Tippin, Colt Ford, Albert Cummings, Jack Russell’s Great White, the Verve Pipe, Popa Chubby, A Flock of Seagulls, Buckcherry), tribute bands, comedians (Bill Bushart) and more announced in early November.
Wilhelm also organizes private and community events for The Roxy and hopes to build to the point of having the facility active four or five nights a week on a regular basis.
“I really felt there was a need for entertainment in downtown Rochester,” says Wilhelm, 53, a resident for 20 years. “We have a lot of great restaurants, but I thought they were missing the entertainment piece of the puzzle, so I kept tabs on Rochester for a number of years.
Janelle Hopkins of Holt-based Meridian Entertainment, which books The Roxy’s domestic acts, adds that the acts have generated considerable interest so far. “We watch rock, country, blues, tributes, jazz, comedians in just about every genre,” she says. “It’s a nice place. The editing is really nice. I think it will bring people from outside the community to Rochester.
Wilhelm is no newcomer to the business. He owns the Oakland Kitchen and Bar in Oakland Township as well as Younger’s Irish Tavern in Romeo; the latter has a small concert hall upstairs that hosts mostly local artists, but whetted Wilhelm’s appetite for more. “I was looking for something a little higher up, where we could do bigger acts and have national acts and things like that,” he says. He bought the building from the Roxy about a year and a half ago and began construction in August, doing most of the work himself with friends and with his wife Katie doing most of the design work.
“Location is a real key to what we do,” says Wilhelm. “I think there’s a good circle here where we can attract people locally and bring in people from outside. It’s a pedestrian zone, so people can come and park once, have dinner somewhere and then come to the show. The Roxy which takes its name from the historic Los Angeles theater as well as others around the world who have used the moniker will offer a limited snack-oriented menu as well as a full bar.
The venue includes a Roxy Lounge in the basement, while the main room, with a capacity of 900 people, has a balcony that surrounds three quarters of the building. Wilhelm and his acolytes restored the church’s mid-19th-century textured tin ceiling and built new service areas for the stage and bar. The Roxy has already hired about 30 event night staff, and Wilhelm plans to add about 15 more before the doors open in mid-June.
And after all the construction and planning work, that date can’t come too soon.
“It’s exciting and I feel like a lot of other people are excited,” notes Wilhelm. “By being in the building every day, you see the changes; people who aren’t are shocked at all that has been done. He begins to feel ready. I can’t wait until we have people here and the music is playing.
The Roxy is located at 401 Walnut Blvd. in Rochester. 248-453-5385 ortheroxyrochester.com for schedule, tickets and other information.
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