Gavin Mulloy Leaves Deep Ellum for Plano. Everyone Does Eventually, Right?

During the past four years, Gavin Mulloy has been synonymous with Trees and The Bomb Factory. Doing marketing for two of the best venues in Deep Ellum, he seemed to be staying put, given the quality of the shows and their turnouts. But he dropped some big news Monday: He has left the Deep Ellum area to become the marketing director at Legacy Hall in Plano.

The building, west of the Dallas North Tollway between Legacy and Headquarters drives, has a brewery, as well as an area called the Box Garden, where bands will play. There’s a full stage along with a 280-foot video board behind it, along with five bar spots, facing an area that can hold up to 1,500 people. The first show will be May 18 with local favorite Sarah Jaffe.

Mulloy said this change had been in the works for a while.

“There was an opportunity that presented itself,” he said by phone Wednesday morning. “It was very beneficial for me, and I had to jump on it.”

Mulloy made a name for himself working at the Granada, and he’s happy to be working at Legacy Hall with his old Granada co-worker Tim Ziegler. After Mulloy left the Greenville Avenue hot spot, he worked for Trees and later helped launch The Bomb Factory, which had been an empty building since the mid-’90s.

“I like opening places and changing them,” he said.

Trees had been reopened for almost seven years before Mulloy joined the team. He’s not one to take credit for making it a much better place compared with how awful it was in the final years before it closed in 2005.

“I get credit — a lot of times — for things when I was just around when they happened,” he said. “I’m not diminishing my contributions to things, but Trees was kicking ass before I got there. It will kick ass now, still. They’re going to kill it over there. Same thing with The Bomb Factory.”

Mulloy compares the progression in his career to the time you spend in school. You go to high school for four years, same for college. He spent four years working for the Granada, and he spent the same time at Trees and The Bomb Factory. Legacy Hall presents him with new challenges that he is up for.

“It’s a little bit different than things I’ve done previously,” Mulloy said. “I’m really learning about dialing in metrics. It’s going to be extremely beneficial for me as far as promoting shows and events and things like that.”

He wants to book all kinds of acts at Legacy Hall.

“I look at promoting shows like a puzzle,” he said.

Promoting a show with a K-pop group is not the same as promoting a show with a metal band from South America.

A big challenge is dealing with the mindset many people have: If it takes longer than 11 minutes to drive between home and venue, then it’s too far. Mulloy understands that gripe, especially for people who live in Deep Ellum and think everything north of LBJ Freeway is lame. He knows people who have the opposite view looking toward downtown Dallas.

“There are people north of 635 that don’t go south of 635,” he said.

He’d like to have a wide variety of people visit the venue, no matter where they’re coming from.

“I think it will be exciting,” Mulloy said. “I hope people will want to come up north of 635 for some of these things.”

Having Sarah Jaffe play the first show is special for Mulloy.

“I love working with Sarah,” he said. “Seems like she’s been at every point of something I’ve gotten to sink my teeth into.”

Mulloy sets his sights on what he can do in Collin County. He’ll be missed at Trees, Canton Hall and the Bomb Factory.

“I don’t ever start doing something and thinking about the end of it,” he said. “I see myself working at this company for the rest of my life, but I always do that.”

He’s happy to be where he is, and he understands how quickly things have changed for the better.

“There is so much more opportunity to work in music on the side that I work on than there was five years ago,” Mulloy said.

Enjoyable live, original music is not something that can only be found in one spot. Toyota Music Factory opened recently in Irving, Gas Monkey has venues in North Dallas and Lava Cantina is in The Colony.

“If you look at the cultural center of anything, it transfers all the time,” Mulloy said. “Not saying it’s going to be the cultural center of Dallas, but there are different things you get to experience and do.”

Legacy Hall, 7800 Windrose Ave., Plano