Portland developer partners with State Theatre to develop outdoor concert site
Courtesy / www.thompsonspointmaine.com
A site plan of the Thompson's Point Development includes a space on marker No. 12 for an outdoor concert venue, which will be developed through a partnership between Forefront Partners and the operators of the State Theatre.
The development of an outdoor concert venue in Portland is moving forward after a local developer signed a long-term agreement with the company that operates the State Theatre.
And when Lauren Wayne, the State Theatre’s general manager, hinted at the forthcoming development in a August Mainebiz profile, it turns out the location was hiding in plain sight.
The State Theatre and Forefront Partners announced Monday that they are partnering to develop the outdoor concert venue at Thompson’s Point, the 30-acre waterfront property on Fore River that had its master plan for a $110 million development approved earlier this year.
The first concerts and events are slated to begin in summer 2015, the companies said in the announcement. The venue’s initial capacity will be 5,000, a little more than half of the 9,500 capacity in the former Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, now known as the Cross Insurance Arena, and nearly three times the 1,870 capacity of the State Theatre.
The State Theatre, which does business as Crobo LLC, will operate as the venue’s exclusive promoter, handling “all aspects of production, ticketing, marketing and talent acquisition.” The concert promotion company produces more than 200 concerts a year and made its biggest splash in outdoor concerts with an August 2012 festival headlined by British folk rock act Mumford & Sons that attracted 16,000 patrons at the Eastern Promenade park in Portland.
The venue will be located on the southern edge of Thompson’s Point, adjacent to a recently restored section of the Union Station platform. In August, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. held one of its seven stops for the nationwide traveling Beer Camp festival, attracting more than 3,200 attendees. The site had already been identified as an outdoor concert venue by Forefront Partners but not many details about long-term plans were previously known.
Forefront Partners has been seeking to transform the industrial site into a new arts and entertainment destination for the city, with a 2,500-person event center and the country's first-ever accredited circus college also planned for the property. Open Bench Project, a creative co-working space, has already opened there.
“Until Thompson’s Point, there has not been a feasible site in Portland that can host concerts outdoors on a consistent basis,” Wayne said in a prepared statement. “Everyone wants to be outside in Maine in the summer and next summer we can be outside, enjoying great music. We are extremely excited to begin this relationship with our partners at Thompson’s Point and we are looking forward to developing an amazing outdoor site with them.”
Wayne told Mainebiz that the recently signed agreement is long term, though she did not specify for how long, only adding that she doesn't know how many companies would enter into an agreement like this without the intention of running a long-term operation.
Many details of the partnership between State Theatre and Forefront Partners are still being worked out, she said, including the financial arrangement of the partnership, infrastructure plans and how much money the companies will invest in the outdoor concert venue.
Wayne said around six to 10 events will happen in the first year, depending on how smoothly venue operations begin, and that the number of events will “ramp up after that.” She said no events have been booked yet, adding that she has only recently starting reaching out to talent agencies for preliminary discussions that will continue into this week.
The outdoor concert venue’s programming will go beyond the kind of concerts the State Theatre, and its sister venue, Port City Music Hall, are known for, Wayne said, adding that other opportunities will be explored, including festivals, winter-themed events, dance- and theater-related events and collaborative partnerships with the Circus Conservatory of America, a school opening this fall at Thompson’s Point that will have the country’s first-ever accredited Bachelor’s of Fine Arts program for circus arts.
“This is an incredible partnership for us because it fits our vision for developing a property in Portland that becomes a hub of creative energy,” Chris Thompson and Jed Troubh of Forefront Partners said in a prepared statement. “The creation of an outdoor concert venue has been a goal of this development team from the beginning, and we’re thrilled to partner with the State Theatre to bring it to fruition.”
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