Asheville, N.C. has one of fastest growing music scenes in America with several dozen venues and live acts performing every night of the week. But musicians have a hard time finding rehearsal space. Enter Claude Coleman, Jr., drummer for the alt-rock band Ween, and his business partner Brett Spivey. Together, they’re creating Sound Space, LLC, a recording studio and practice space that will breathe new life into Rabbit’s Motel, which was the only lodging available to touring Negro Southern League baseball players and other African-American visitors to Asheville during Jim Crow, and home to a popular soul food café.

NCIF is providing Sound Space with a loan to renovate the building. Once completed, Sound Space will sell new and used musical equipment, rent practice space, and coordinate lessons and workshops. A local chef (and relative of the original Rabbit’s owners) will open a new soul food café on site. The project will also feature a gallery to commemorate the baseball players who stayed at Rabbit’s Motel during segregation.