by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
Lisa Thomas, owner of Rock & Roll Pizza, is negotiating to lease a portion of the Churchwell Building on Bay Street.
The larger space would give Thomas an opportunity to book bigger name bands for the club, and she wants to be a part of the initial stage of the Bay Street Town Center project, a proposed entertainment district.
Thomas is interested in renting the ground floor of the building for her business. The space is adjacent to Eclate, a jazz club scheduled to open in the near future.
“It’s a strong building, but it needs a lot of TLC for what we need,” Thomas, who moonlights as a scout for Warner Brothers Records. “I don’t see any other place for it to be except down here. There’s no cooler layout for night life than downtown.”
She is teaming with another club owner for the venture.
“I would do this without him but it would benefit the music scene more if we worked together,” said Thomas. “We could bring in four times as many people. We really just need a bigger space. I already spoke to friends that have clubs in Orlando. They’re interested in it. They want to look at the strip and look at the models to see what the layout is. They want to know what the City has intended for it and how serious the City is about it. They’re obviously very serious about it.”
Currently located in the Hamby Building on West Forsyth Street, Rock & Roll Pizza has a maximum seating capacity of 256. Thomas wants a location that holds 600 people.
She plans to keep the current location as a club for emerging musicians.
“We want to make this bigger,“ she said. ”We will keep this place for baby bands. This city needs a mid-sized venue and I’m emotionally attached to this place.”
Working with promoters such as Tim Hall, owner of Jack Rabbit’s, and Jason Lewis, who promotes the Warped Tour, Thomas brings in local, regional and national acts.
“We want to make the music scene happen as much as we can,” she said. “I book indie, pop-punk, acoustic, hard core, metal, rock-a-billy and hip-hop. If it’s good, we’ll book it.”
Thomas hopes to move to Bay Street by next fall. She met recently with Michael Munz, vice president of The Dalton Agency, and realtor Bob Knight about the space.
“They’re putting a lot of effort into it,” she said. “It’s happening. When we were in Five Points, we cranked. We rocked hard. We were never not busy. Something like that [Imperial Lounge] downtown would be a huge anchor to pull people down here. It’s going to attract a lot of younger people, too, which is where it’s at. It will encourage them to hang out, look around and think, ‘Hey, it would be pretty cool to live down here.’ Maybe then we’ll get a grocery store or a movie theater.”