The Silver Spring Penguin

MoCo exec Ike Leggett and reps for concert promoter Live Nation have signed a lease that will put a Fillmore music hall on Colesville Road, according to a press statement released late Friday afternoon.

The new venue will preserve the facade at the former JC Penney site, which has been empty for 18 years. Up to 2,000 fans could pack into the joint.

“We want to bring Silver Spring revitalization across Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue,” Leggett said Friday. “This location will create a dynamic center of music and entertainment with the American Film Institute and the restored Silver Theater directly across the street.”

The deal puts to bed a five-year exercise to bring the show to Silver Spring. The county originally hoped to bring an expansion of the Alexandria-based Birchmere to town. When talks with the Birchmere crapped out last summer, the county quickly jumped into bed with Live Nation.

Those negotiations sent Seth Hurwitz, owner of The District’s 9:30 Club, into a tizzy. By September, Hurwitz’s media campaign against the county’s closed-door negotiations was in full force. No dice.

“We expect that a diverse group of artists from all over the world will come to Silver Spring to play the Fillmore,” Live Nation VP Ted Mankin said. “We are going to make things happen in Silver Spring that are happening nowhere else in the country.”

The lease’s dirty details include:

• The state and county will foot $4 million each — $8 million in public cash — to build the joint. Live Nation throws in $2 million for lights, sound gear and other interior fixings, and could pick up the tab for cost overruns.

• The county keeps the $3.5 million worth of land, donated by the Lee Development Group, as well as the future facility. Live Nation will pay $90,000 each year in rent plus utilities and maintenance.

• An advisory committee will fill Leggett in on community issues related to Silver Spring’s arts and entertainment venues, including the Fillmore. Live Nation promises it won’t keep the kids out later than 1:00 a.m., and no booze will flow after midnight.

• The neighborhood gets at least 36 free or discounted uses of the facility each year. Add to that the $30,000 annually that Live Nation will drop to cover those community-use days. It’ll also collect signed gear from performers for an annual auction to benefit community causes.

The state and county will spend $355,000 each year on the project, according to an economic-impact study done by the county. However, both governments could net $1,067,000 from taxes and rent. That rings up to $712,000 cash money in profit each year for public coffers.

Planning department reviews and actual construction will take at least two years. The Fillmore is expected to throw open its doors 2010.

Updated Jan 18, 2008, at 9:49 p.m.