Mills renovated into apartments. A new craft brewery and a diner. Young couples with dogs and babies strolling the sidewalks.

Rob Azevedo had long envisioned how to turn an old furniture store in Suncook Village into a bar and live music venue. Looking around, he could see it was time.

“It’s got the potential to really, I think, explode with new young people down there,” Azevedo said. So, he got a lease on the property and made his vision a reality.

Pembroke City Limits, which Azevedo described as a neighborhood bar with quality live music at its core, tapped its first kegs and plugged in its first amps last week. For Azevedo, who’s featured local musicians on his WKXL radio show for over a decade, it’s the latest way he’s woven his love of music into his life. He’s confident it will become one more feature breathing new energy into the Suncook Valley.

Azevedo’s radio show, “Granite State of Mind,” brings in on-the-rise New Hampshire musicians for performances and interviews. Two years ago, he moved to Pembroke, buying an old farm. He dressed up the barn a bit, added a bar, and started inviting friends and musicians he’d met along the way to come and jam for a small audience. Word spread and more and more people showed up, coming from around the state.

“It just kept growing,” he said.

Azevedo had a hunch that there was a thirst for live music in his area that wasn’t being quenched. This proved it. If people were willing to drive an hour to listen to a band in his barn, he realized, a new bar with that same dedication to local artistry could grab a lot of ears.

Eric Klesper, a friend who had seen the success of the barn, had the same thought.

“Five or 10 years ago, you would’ve thought this was the boonies,” he said of Pembroke and Suncook. But, coming to visit Azevedo after his move, the growing energy and construction in the area was a clear sign for Klesper. A headhunter by day with some experience in restaurant work, he climbed aboard as a business partner.

Azevedo called up the landlord of an old furniture store on the village’s main street. In ventures downtown, he’d peered inside its tall, arched windows before and imagined where a bar and a stage could go.

At Pembroke City Limits’ soft opening this week, it was exactly how he’d pictured it.

“It was packed,” he said. Not unusual for an opening, but notable for a Wednesday. “I’m sitting there and I’m like, here it is. This is the consistent crowd. This is the neighborhood.”

Food at the venue is whipped up by the Sleazy Vegan, a food truck with a mission to bring stunningly tasty vegan food to everyone, not just those opting out of animal-based products.

Azevedo said the summer calendar, with live music two or three nights per week, was full almost as soon as they started booking. With his connections to the local music scene, he’s able to bring in people he knows will put on a real show — like Gary Smith’s Jazz Group and Dusty Gray. Sundays will feature jazz and reggae. Bluegrass, blues and other genres are in the mix, too.

“It’s not just background music with the Celtics on,” he said. “The focus is the music.”