Portland, Oregon is one of the last larger cities in the U.S. that doesn’t have a venue owned by Live Nation, but last month, a city hearings officer approved a venue development plan. However, the musician trade association MusicPortland isn’t going down without a fight and is trying to block the conglomerate from entering the city’s vibrant indie music scene.
The approved proposal will see an empty lot, owned by Prosper Portland at the east end of Hawthorne Bridge, be turned into a 3,500-capacity venue. While two Portland firms — Beam Development and Colas Development Group — plan to build the venue, Live Nation would operate the space.
Williamette Week previously reported that the construction of the new venue would create around 400 new jobs with an estimated $35 million in wages, and once completed, the venue would generate an estimated $600,000 annually in property tax. Additionally, local businesses like hotels and restaurants would benefit as the venue brought-in interest throughout the state.
However, local promoters and concertgoers don’t see Live Nation’s presence as anything but detrimental to the music scene. The volunteer-based independent organization MusicPortland has been leading the resistance against Live Nation’s involvement, noting in a report that “this proposed partnership has the potential to cause far more harm than good to the Portland music scene.”
| READ: Portland Locals Aim to Maintain Indie Scene in City, Push Back Against Live Nation |
After the proposal was approved, MusicPortland raised $6,000 to appeal, noting that the project violates city zoning codes and is a safety hazard to Southeast Water Avenue. MusicPortland policy chair and City Council candidate Jamie Dunphy said the project “is both the wrong place and the wrong operator for a venue this important to Portland.” The organization is asking the City Council to overturn the hearing officer’s decision and “deny the permit completely,” pointing to the fact that the venue was given a “conditional use permit,” not a conditional building permit.
“We believe that was incorrectly done, that the project is inherently unsafe, out of character, and that they should not be exempt from the base zone code requirements,” Dunphy said.
Additionally, MusicPortland objected the safety and logistics of the site. Dunphy explained that a majority of the parking spaces for concerts at the venue will be across the Central Eastside train tracks.
“Anyone who’s driven through the inner eastside knows those train tracks are an unpredictable nightmare,” Dunphy said. “Having people partying, drinking, having a good time and then crossing exposed train tracks — it’s dangerous.”
MusicPortland has also been rallying against the venue for months, calling-out Live Nation for its infamous monopolistic business practices alongside Ticketmaster. The pair are currently subjects of an antitrust lawsuit by the Department of Justice and 39 states, which aims to break-up the longtime duo.
“The local music industry, which includes more than twenty thousand working musicians and numerous independent, locally-controlled venues, has reached a critical juncture due to new, unprecedented collaboration with each other and with local and state government and agencies,” MusicPortland said. “This hard work would be gravely compromised by the presence of Live Nation, given its historical business practices that actively work to eliminate local competition.”
The developers, however, aren’t backing down. Jonathan Malsin, principal of Beam Development, noted in a statement that they have “already satisfied conditional use permit requirements as evidenced by city staff’s and the hearing officer’s approval” and “we look forward to presenting this project to City Council as well.”
A land use hearing is scheduled for September 19.
