When Josh Billue and then co-owner Chris Cobb opened The Signal on Chestnut Street in 2018, it was “about getting a room open in Chattanooga.”
Billue told the Times Free Press on Wednesday in a telephone interview that moving the concert and event venue into the former Chattanooga Choo Choo Convention Center space “is about putting us where we want to be in 20 years.”
Billue announced Wednesday that The Signal will move with a reopening target date of April 2023. He said the move gives the business more options and a chance to benefit from things they’ve learned over the years not only while operating here, but in other parts of the country.
Since 2018, The Signal has hosted dozens of concerts and events each year, such as corporate dinners and luncheons or weddings, but it hasn’t been able to host both at the same time. With the move to the Choo Choo, Billue said the venue will be able to host a dinner party in one space and a live show in another, and improvements can be made to the spaces based on lessons learned over the years in other venues Billue has opened in St. Louis, Missouri; Little Rock, Arkansas; Kansas City, Missouri; Nashville and soon in Jacksonville, Florida.
“Honestly, the music part of it was pretty good, but the events were not perfect,” Billue said of the Chestnut Street space. “It was our second build. It was an OK room, but we thought we could do better. This gives us a chance to start fresh, but also to have two spaces. A concert space and a hybrid space.