The Mercantile, a music venue under construction in the former location of Crossroads Music Hall and, more recently, retailer UG White, has postponed all its concerts through August, according to the venture’s website.

AL.com has contacted the venue’s ownership, PBD Holdings, for comment and will report additional information when it becomes available. PBD Holdings recently opened an English-style pub called The Poppy on the downtown Huntsville square.

When AL.com first reported plans for The Mercantile to open, a venue representative cited June 28 as a targeted soft opening, with a set by Tuscaloosa band The Dexateens.

More recently, a July 11 show by the group Dishwalla was the first show listed on the venue's online calendar.

In addition to Dishwalla, other Mercantile postponements include shows by Dawes, Jimbo Mathus, Here Come The Mummies, Diamond Rio, Tauk, Framing Hanley, local band Quantaphonics and Tuscaloosa combo CBDB.

September, October and November shows by acts including Leo Kottke, Allman Betts Band, White Reaper and Perpetual Groove, as well as tribute bands performing the music of Michael Jackson and Pink Floyd, have not been postponed, according to The Mercantile’s website.

The Mercantile has been in the midst of a build-out at 115 Clinton Ave. N. Features include a second-floor wraparound balcony and lots of hardwood. A large American flag hangs from the ceiling over the main floor.

The Mercantile’s website currently lists its capacity at 900 people.

Huntsville has been without a large, club-sized venue dedicated primarily to live music since Crossroads shuttered in 2013, after a 17-year run that began at its original, Heart of Huntsville mall location.

A large club-sized room is a key component of a market’s live venue mix because rooms around 800 to 1,200 capacity or so work well for buzz bands and established career niche artists. This type of venue is perhaps even more critical for a tertiary market like Huntsville, which can face challenges attracting A-list arena-level acts in an era of ultra-streamlined touring itineraries focused mostly on larger markets.

However, club-level artists often still play shows in tertiary markets - that is, if there's a large club-sized venue in that market.

Alabama Shakes performed at the downtown Crossroads, around the time that Athens-founded band was breaking big. The many other notables that performed at Crossroads include Avett Brothers, Levon Helm and Old Crow Medicine Show. Alabama native Jason Isbell, who went on to become a multiple Grammy-winner played the final show at Crossroads. Crossroads' lease was canceled for nonpayment of rent. The venue’s owner Jamie Hunter said he’d withheld rent to force then-landlord CityScapes to fix plumbing and structural problems. UG White opened a store in the former Crossroads location in 2015 and closed in 2018, following water damage due to a fire at Pints & Pixels, an arcade/bar located on the third floor.

The 2017 opening of SideTracks Music Hall at 415 Church St. brought more club-level shows here, including an “underplay” - music-biz speak for purposely booking a smaller venue than a band would normally perform in - by rising rockers Greta Van Fleet. But since SideTracks’ capacity is around 375 there remains a large-club void in Huntsville’s venue mix.

VBC management has previously indicated to AL.com that Crossroads’ closure and lack of a true replacement were key factors in the VBC’s interest in building a similarly sized venue.

The Von Braun Center is constructing a new 1,200 capacity venue, initially targeted to open this fall. This space would join the VBC’s other two primary concert spaces: the 9,000-capacity Propst Arena and 1,995-seat Mark C. Smith Concert Hall.

The lack of a large-scale amphitheater has been another hole in Huntsville’s venue mix. However in January, Huntsville City Council approved a $4 million contract to design a 8,500-seat amphitheater for an estimated $35-40 million at the MidCity development’s University Drive site, formerly home to Madison Square Mall.

Last spring, the city contracted London-based firm Sound Diplomacy to perform an audit of Huntsville’s music economy, for $165,000, allocated from Huntsville’s Economic Development Fund. Some initial survey findings were revealed in October. At that time, Sound Diplomacy’s CEO indicated the final Huntsville music-audit findings would be delivered by the end of February. In April, a city official told AL.com the city was still waiting on those findings. City officials have cited quality of life, including being “a music friendly city,” as being important for economic development here.

A previous version of this story indicated all Mercantile shows had been cancelled, not just the July and August shows. We regret the error.