Representatives from Live Nation and the county exec’s office last night faced an inquisitive citizens advisory board, who asked why county and state funds were needed to build The Fillmore concert hall on Colesville Road.
“I have to question whether a company of your size and deep pockets needs $4 million in public [county] money,” board member Fran Rothstein said during the board’s meeting in Long Branch.
The county’s $4 million is expected to match the state’s $4 million contribution to build a concert hall at the former JC Penney site. Ted Mankin, of Live Nation, previously said the company would drop $2 million on sound gear, lighting and furniture. The real estate — valued at $3.5 million — would be donated by the Lee Development Group.
“We’re not giving money to help them,” Patrick Lacefield, spokesperson for MoCo exec Ike Leggett, responded. “We’re giving money to help us.”
Live Nation has previously received public funds to set up venues in other cities, Mankin offered. The Jackie Gleason Theatre, a 3,500-seat Live Nation venue in Miami Beach, was partly funded with public dollars, he said.
However, Silver Spring’s venue would be the first Fillmore concert hall constructed from the ground up, Lacefield explained. The JC Penney site consists only of a facade and a 30-foot-deep building. The proposed Fillmore would serve 500 seated patrons to 2,000 general-admission moshers.
“No operator is going to build from the ground up. You have to have the public investment,” Lacefield added.
That kind of cash also worried board member Marilyn Seitz, who did not want The Fillmore’s development and eventual programming to conflict with downtown’s other hot project — the Silver Spring civic center.
“We’ve worked so hard to get the civic building to replace the armory,” Seitz said. “Our focus has got to be on the civic building.”
Gary Stith, director of the Silver Spring Regional Center, told Seitz that he didn’t foresee any conflict. The civic building would host small meetings, as well as larger gatherings in its ballroom-like great hall. On the other hand, The Fillmore would offer more of a theater setting, Stith said.
Funds for the civic building are already in the books, Stith added. Construction on that project is scheduled to begin in January, with its completion anticipated in 16 to 18 months.
By comparison, The Fillmore project would not be completed until 2010 at the earliest, Lacefield estimated.
Read 
What the hell are they building now? Learn more from 
Boxed wines and rosés are back in vogue. Just ask The Penguin's sommeliers.
If that building was vacant for all these years, doesn’t it make sense for the county and state to fill it any way they can? If the money wasn’t there, would any music company come?
Editor’s note: Please refrain from posting comments anonymously, or annonymously. Thanks! — JD (Oct 9, 2007)
Tax payers had to supplement the AFI Silver Theater’s deficit last year, yet no one complains about that. I am a active member who regularly sits in an empty theater for class entertainment. As much as I hoped for The Birchmere,I realize, thru my AFI patronage that it wouldn’t be supported. My advice, hit the farmers market & get some local cheese to go with your whine.