Noblesville's Verizon Wireless Music Center is no longer
for sale and will host a full lineup of shows in 2008, the facility's general manager, Steve Finkel, said this afternoon.
Many had expected the 2007 season would be the swan song for the popular amphitheater after venue owner Live Nation put the
203-acre property up for sale in December 2006. But as of June, no acceptable offers had been received, and several local
brokers told IBJ that the unofficial asking price of more than $40 million was outrageous. Live Nation had sought to capitalize
on the rising value of the venue's land, which once was remote farmland but is now surrounded by development. What do you
think?
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Welcome to Property Lines, Indy's source for neighborhood real estate news. Your host is Scott Olson, IBJ's real estate beat
reporter. Edited by Cory Schouten.
Noblesville's Verizon Wireless Music Center is no longer
for sale and will host a full lineup of shows in 2008, the facility's general manager, Steve Finkel, said this afternoon.
Many had expected the 2007 season would be the swan song for the popular amphitheater after venue owner Live Nation put the
203-acre property up for sale in December 2006. But as of June, no acceptable offers had been received, and several local
brokers told IBJ that the unofficial asking price of more than $40 million was outrageous. Live Nation had sought to capitalize
on the rising value of the venue's land, which once was remote farmland but is now surrounded by development. What do you
think?
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First, the Athenaeum is going to have to get past the hurdle with the Lockerbie residents and the agreement that the parcel would be residential. Second, and in my opinion, this prime piece of property should include parking, PLUS, a black box theater(s), some market rate and affordable artist housing and a plan to renovate and reconfigure the second story theater. I would negotiate to add the DeHaan property surface parking lot into the development mix, place a one story surface parking garage on the DeHaan lot on the street level (for the Dehaan tenants use during the daytime) and add a second story to the garage that would become an addition to the current second story theater and then change the direction of the theater by moving the stage across the alley and on top of the DeHaan lot parking. You can add all the stage elements that are currently missing from the Athenaeum stage to make it more attractive for use by Ballet, Opera and traveling productions. Plus, the theater changes would probably help solve some of the soundproofing issues. Alas,it does not seem to be a part of the strategic plan to conduct a study to determine best use of the property. Seems like the current plan is a quick and easy move that ignores the property best use/potential and any strategic property planning for the effect on future generations.
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I recall that MSA's pilings are still in the ground and hard to remove. It’s not likely any proposal will include significant underground construction/parking because of this. Start adding 2 floors of retail, 8 floors of parking and 5-10 floors of possible hotel, and/or 10-20 floors of residential, and you are at 30 floors already with possible expansion of all the uses. But then again I could be wrong.
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Accoriding to their website there is no deadline to the Do Not Call list. What is this article referring to??
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On what planet are they entitled to this largesse from the stockholders? These people make multi-million dollar salaries: Pay for your own personal travel.
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It matters because they're already paid enormously fat salaries: Pay for your own personal travel. Being "taxed on it" isn't a valid excuse--so what? They're still being gifted a raft of luxury perks from somebody else's money on top of an enormous, lavish salary.
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This news ROCKS!!!
The downtown comments are good as well but why get rid of VWMC when you can come out and tailgate, relax on the grass and enjoy a entire evening of world class entertainers at a excellent establishment!!
Driving to the boondocks for has-been performers ain't my cup of tea. The only good acts they get there come through on weeknights. Who wants to travel 45 minutes each way, wait in traffic and pay through the nose for parking and beer for that?
Deer Creek's owners were crazy to think they could get that much for the land, but it really could be better used.
I love the idea of a bigger Downtown venue. The Lawn is a great place to see shows, and I've heard the Counting Crows show at Victory Field as a good one, too.
When Deer Creek was built, Indy didn't have much to offer Downtown. That's changed. Let's roll with it.
Nothing rocks like Deer Creek. You can have downtown.
Jon, you can keep your Def Leppard concerts and Applebee's dinners up in Fishers.
I personally hate going up to it. I may go to one or two shows a year up there. Give me a nice night at Radio Radio any night. Chances are if you don't like the bands playing that night going in, you'll like at least one of them on your way out. If I got to choose where my favorite bigger bands play, I'll take Music Mill or the Lawn at White River, please.
Hopefully, access to and from VWMC will be improved after area development has been completed. Still, I can't imagine that mall shoppers will enjoy wading through concert traffic.
Downtown is just fine for a venue location. I haven't been to the Lawn for a show yet, but I have seen it, and it loks like a nice venue. Bush stadium would be a nifty idea, and I'm sure Victory Field works too.
For those of you who have not been paying attention to the live music scene, it's dying. People these days would rather sit in their comfy chair listening to their mp3s or watching videos on YouTube. Large venues like VWMC are honestly outdated, (not to mention way-overpriced) other than the festival type shows, and those, they always have to cut-off alcohol sales because the crowd gets too rowdy. Sod anyone?
I can't say I'll be sad to see VWMC go, or say I'm happy it's staying another year, but unless I can see a show for free there, I'd rather not bother to venture out to the boondocks to see a show, then be stuck in traffic for 2 hours trying to get home afterwards.
On a side note... Downtown is safe... unless you're daft enough to go exploring alleys off the beaten-path by yourself.
Jon, the last time I was at the place, it took well more than an hour to get to the parking lot exit. It never takes me that long to get all the way home from a Colts game or race in Speedway where there are 3-10 times as many people. But then, I live inside 465...in the actual city.
I'd much rather attend several more-intimate, quality venues downtown that draw cutting-edge national acts, than drive to VWMC to see the same mega-tours every summer.
Let's consider the reasons the developers selected a locale that far away from Indy.... I'd think that, back then, they'd have been able to purchase land a bit north of the Marsh corporate offices, or the east side of that portion of I-69, if proximity to the capitol city would've been that important.
:applebees:
LMFAO.
How many does victory field hold?
How many can fit on The Lawn?
The Lawn and Victory Field are both excellent venues, but lack capacity. The problem with Indy is that Market Square Arena has not been relplaced. There is no viable facility to hold a large concert. The Fieldhouse is not acceptable as a concert venue.
One would think that this type of a facility would be included in the Mayor's Cultural Development Initiative (not the cultural trail). At least I think music concerts are considered cultural . . . however with the odd art/sculpture/electronic signage that is now being implemented into the streetscape of Indianapolis I am not sure what is cultural anymore.
Signed:
Indianapolis.
Deer Creek holds 25,000.
And in 2006, out of 100 venues like Deer Creek, it was 5th in the nation in ticket sales. Once they get the roads done around the venue, traffic will not be a problem. Instead of 2 lane roads coming in and out of Deer Creek, we will have 4 and 6 lane roads.
We don't have to build freeway lanes or roads to improve access to the Vic, or a mall, restaurants, offices, shops, or hotels nearby. They're already there.
As CDC guy said, Deer Creek holds ~25,000 (wikipedia says 6k pavilion, 18k lawn)
Victory Field doesn't hold 20k, it holds 15,500 (12,500 in actual seats, plus 1k in bleachers and 2k on the lawn areas).
The Lawn holds about 5,000.
IMO, The Lawn is by far the best outdoor venue in Indy. I'm begrudgingly heading to Deer Creek tonight for only the third time in 7 years, partly because my wife has never seen Dave Matthews Band, but mostly because I want to see Umphrey's McGee. God I hate getting out and driving home from Deer Creek....