A longtime Buffalo Theater District attraction will be departing for a new location.
The Tralf Music Hall revealed on Facebook Tuesday that it will be closing its Theater Place venue at the end of May. It will relocate as an anchor tenant in Legacy Development's Genesee Gateway development, located on Oak, Genesee, and Ellicott streets. Legacy also owns Theater Place.
"At the end of May 2021, the legendary Tralf Music Hall stage will fall silent," the venue said. "The reason for the venue's denouement is quite simple. Our lease has reached its conclusion and the ownership of 622 Main Street is transforming the building to residential usage."
Legacy President Frank Chinnici told Business First that the Food and Drug Administration on the third floor of Theater Place will move to the first floor, and its offices and the Tralf's second floor space will be converted into apartments.
"Tralf Music Hall owner Tom Barone and his team have presented concerts in Western New York for 40 years and will continue to do so in locations across the region," according to Facebook.
Refunds will be given forBand Together Buffalo, which had been schedule to take place May 28-29. The music hall said May 28 will also be its final day of operation. No target date for the Tralf's reopening was given.
In 1975, founders Ed and Bob Lawson named the intimate home for legendary performances -- from jazz to rock to country -- after a fictional planet in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. The Tralf moved to Theater Place in 1982, from its original location as the Tralfamadore Cafe in a basement on Main Street near Fillmore Avenue, because of the Metro Rail construction.
