Credit: J. Deseo/SSP
The construction of downtown Silver Spring’s music hall is stuck in neutral because its developer is worried about the joint’s impact on an adjacent, still unknown project, MoCo exec Ike Leggett said Saturday.
In an exclusive interview (read: chance encounter) with The Penguin, Leggett indicated that the Lee Development Group, which intends to donate land along Colesville Road to the project, wants all assurances from the county that its future building next door won’t be screwed by the music hall’s construction.
“Everyone’s super-lawyered up,” Leggett told The Penguin before addressing a crime-prevention summit at Montgomery College. Negotiations between the county and the development group could take days or weeks, he added.
According to Leggett, the matter goes something like this:
Last year, the Lee Development Group agreed to donate the old JC Penney site on Colesville Road to the county-run project. The Silver Spring-based company also will be responsible for the hall’s construction.
In exchange for their donation, the Lees scored a zoning change that will allow the music hall to fulfill any public-amenity obligations for their larger, still unplanned commercial project on an adjacent lot along Georgia Avenue.
Now the Lees want to be sure the music-hall project, which is supposed to stick a shovel in the ground next year, won’t become a bureaucratic obstacle to the adjacent mystery project when that enigma comes under the planning board’s microscope, Leggett said.
The county exec wouldn’t go into further details but called the issue “complicated”, especially since no one knows what this mystery project will look like. Hence all the lawyers.
Funding the Fillmore isn’t an issue, Leggett added. The project has $4 million in state money plus at least $2 million in county cash in its pocket. Venue operator Live Nation will throw in up to $2 million for interior bells, whistles, smoke machines and laser lights.
Editor’s note: The Lee Development Group was not contacted prior to publishing this article.
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“Super Lawyered Up” would be a great band name — one I’d like to see IF Fillmore ever gets built! *sigh*
Lee Development can build what they want, but do not TOUCH Nice Nails and DeMarcos. I’ve been going to both for years.
The adjacent project is probably a competing music venue run by Seth Horowitz. Hence the shroud of darkness.
Or, more likely, its probably a combination starbucks/hair salon/beerwineandeli.
I’d totally see Super Lawyered Up if they came to The Fillmore. Especially if someone like Leggett and the Litigators opened up for them.
Giving someone the “Go Ahead” to do something in which no one knows what that something is …. is just a bad idea.
Hopefully the adjacent project is a landmark building. We need a 300-footer to actually make a statement! It’s smack dab in the middle of downtown for Christ’s sake! And Christ would surely want it, too!