Fishtown factory building to become concert venue

Jeff Blumenthal Reporter-Philadelphia Business Journal

The former Ajax Metal Co. in Fishtown will reportedly be converted into a $32 million entertainment and concert venue to be operated by Live Nation.

The Philadelphia Inquirer said the project at the shuttered factory across Delaware Avenue from the SugarHouse Casino at Frankford Avenue will include two music venues under one roof — a two-level, 2,500-person-capacity concert hall called the Fillmore and the separate 450-patron Foundry club (plus bars and restaurant). The facility will be run by the House of Blues Entertainment (HoBE) division of Live Nation.

The 141,000-square-feet facility will be called Penn Treaty Village and will join other attempts to revitalize that portion of Fishtown.
Live Nation is the region’s largest concert presenter — contracting music acts for the Wells Fargo Center, Susquehanna Bank Center, Festival Pier, Tower Theater, and Theater of Living Arts.

Here’s more from the Inquirer, which questions whether rival concert promoters will be displeased by the additional competition.

"Can you hear the teeth-grinding of rival promoters at the smaller Ardmore Music Hall, World Cafe Live, and Underground Arts; the medium-size Trocadero, Union Transfer, and Keswick Theatre; and the Fillmore’s most obvious rival, the 2,500- to 3,000-person-capacity Electric Factory, steered by former Live Nation exec Larry Magid?"

“It’s crazy,” said rival concert booker Jesse Lundy of Point Entertainment. “This town is out of control, over-clubbed. It’s become a seller’s market. We’re fighting, competing over everything, even acts worth $5. Talent agents are looking at us and licking their lips like we’re a big lamb chop.”
Full story: http://tinyurl.com/o2q4lyw
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