Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007
As the news that a Fillmore music hall is planned for downtown Silver Spring has begun to sink in, residents have voiced mixed feelings about a project that swiftly replaced plans for the Birchmere.
Cautious optimism that the Fillmore could further establish Silver Spring as an arts and entertainment center has competed with concerns about the crowd the facility would target, and whether a company based across the country will successfully meet the needs of Silver Spring.
The announcement that Los Angeles-based venue operator Live Nation had signed a nonbinding letter of intent with the county to open a Fillmore on Colesville Road was made official at a press conference Sept. 26 with County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and Live Nation executive Ted Mankin.
While some residents who had lobbied for the Birchmere voiced reservations, others were more open to the Fillmore and Live Nation.
‘‘It seems to have been an automatic sentiment of, if it’s not the Birchmere, then it’s not good,” said Paul Goldman, a Silver Spring resident who has lived near the downtown area for nearly 20 years. In July, the county ended negotiations with the Birchmere, which is now considering plans to open a 500-person venue in College Park.
‘‘In general, as long as the county has a well thought-out plan and reason for spending money on infrastructure, such as things that would redevelop a town center or develop county attractions, I don’t see anything wrong with spending money on it,” Goldman said.
Both the state and the county will contribute $4 million to the project, assuming that the state funding is not reassigned to the Birchmere’s College Park proposal.
Silver Spring resident Bill Borwegen said he would have preferred that the county used the money for a locally owned and operated venue like the Birchmere, rather than a ‘‘$1.5 billion dollar publicly traded company.”
Rich Swanson, a Silver Spring resident who launched a ‘‘Save the Birchmere” campaign when the county abandoned negotiations with the Alexandria, Va.,-based music hall, said he was ‘‘baffled” by the $8 million planned for one of the largest music providers in the world. Live Nation operates more than 100 venues worldwide.
Since 2000, the county has invested more than $100 million in new arts and music facilities, such as BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, the Music Center at Strathmore and the reopening of the Metropolitan Center for the Visual Arts in Rockville, according to the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.
After the press conference Sept. 26, Leggett said the county would have spent much more satisfying the demands of the Birchmere than its current deal with Live Nation, ‘‘the best deal for the county.”
County spokesman Patrick K. Lacefield said Live Nation is willing to contribute up to $2 million to pay for outfitting the building, twice what the Birchmere was offering.
An economic impact study announced Monday showed that the county already has an audience for the growing cultural economy in its nonprofit sector. In fiscal 2005, more than $65 million was spent on ‘‘event-related spending” by audiences at nonprofit arts and cultural venues in Montgomery County, according to the study by the nonprofit Americans for the Arts, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.
Shellie Williams, a spokeswoman for the Arts and Humanities Council for Montgomery County, said audience spending was measured by surveys of those who attended events at ‘‘all of our major arts institutions,” including the Strathmore, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and the Kensington Arts Theatre, among many others. That spending, along with more than $51 million reported by nonprofit arts and culture organizations in 2005, contributed to about $3.8 million in revenue generated for both the county and state, according to the study.
Live Nation, a for-profit venture, could only ‘‘contribute to the vibrancy of what’s already happening in the county,” said Theresa Cameron, CEO of the county’s Arts and Humanities Council. ‘‘The biggest concern we’ve had is that [Live Nation] operates as a for-profit venture, and once we provide them some help, they’ll be off on their own,” she said.
Ken Davis, a Silver Spring resident who lives about three blocks away from the future site of the Fillmore, said he was less concerned with the economics involved than what an up to 2,000-person club meant for a neighborhood he said was heavily made up of ‘‘baby boomers.”
All shows at the Fillmore in Philadelphia, for example, are general admission, standing room only, according to its Web site. Davis said many who live near downtown Silver Spring who were ‘‘middle-aged” like him have expressed concern that the venue would ‘‘without question” tend to appeal to a younger audience. And even though both Leggett and Mankin have said the hall would cater to a wide range of musical tastes and offer flexibility as to its use, Davis said until he saw evidence of that, he would continue spending his money at Alexandria’s Birchmere.
‘‘Even on economic grounds, it’s fair to ask which one will be here in 10 years?” Davis said.
Marco Fortini, owner of DaMarco’s Italia Gourmet, said while he was excited about the new plans, at this point the type of venue did not matter to small business owners along Colesville Road. What mattered is that the county sticks to its plans to open the venue by early 2010. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.
‘‘The longer you drag it out, the more hope you get out of the people ... and some businesses around here, they won’t make it past like 2015,” said Fortini, whose restaurant will be the Fillmore’s immediate neighbor. ‘‘Just because you have a letter of intent, that doesn’t mean it’s 100 percent secure. Until I start seeing some construction, I’ll believe it then.”
A binding lease agreement with Live Nation is expected by Dec. 31 of this year.
Bruce Lee, president of the Lee Development Group, which is donating the land for the music hall, said about $350,000 has already been spent by his firm in engineering and architectural feasibility costs and traffic studies over the last eight months.
A traffic and impact study was completed by the end of August, he said, after the firm received new numbers on the number of people that could be using the venue, an increase from the 450 maximum occupancy planned by the Birchmere to the 2,000 maximum in the new plans.
Lacefield said the county was in the position now to get more feedback from the community and work on promoting a ‘‘synergy between the AFI [Silver Theatre], Discovery and Live Nation.”
