Birchmere Moves to College Park
By Silver Springer • Sep 25th, 2007 • Category: Business and Economic Development
Congrats to College Park, if all goes the way they want it, the Birchmere will open at the planned east campus development, a mixed-use development that follows closely in the foot steps of the Downtown Silver Spring project and even lead by developers Foulger Pratt and Argo Investment; two of the three developers who created Downtown Silver Spring.
The home of the states flagship university has plans underway for several major redevelopments bringing the dreary “college town” to a marketable level.
Where US Route 1/Baltimore Ave is littered with liquor stores and fast food chains at the moment, it could actually be taken seriously as a real life college experience instead of being a sub par environment that leaves college students wanting more.
“We’re very excited about opening a venue in suburban Maryland, and couldn’t ask for better partners and a more ideal location,” said the Birchmere’s founder Gary Oelze.
Whatever way you want to look at it; the Birchmere move to College Park answers or throws another wrench into the reasons why negotiations fell apart with Montgomery County. The College Park venue would seat 500, Montgomery is looking for a larger venue with around 1,200 seats. LiveNation and 9:30 club managers are interested in Silver Spring.
On Monday, the Silver Spring Scene and two other news blogs sat down with Montgomery County Executive Isaiah Leggett to discuss the future of a music venue in Silver Spring.
All over Maryland, once forgotten areas are picking themselves up by the bootstraps and taking a competitive stance on economic development. In the future College Park and other areas like Prince George’s Plaza/University Town Center may join Silver Spring and Bethesda as urban districts; primary dense business hubs of commerce, living, entertainment centered on mass transit rail.
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Sounds good to me. Maybe it’ll encourage SEE to actually get mainstream bands for their concerts if there’s an alternative venue for the weird/boring stuff.
Looks like Silver Spring didn’t get a hand me down.
Maybe College Park would like to hang the old Birchmere sign from a tree?
You always wonder how much of what a politician does is based on what they believe and how much is just crass political calculation. Well, former County Exec is demonstrating that he’s all about getting ahead as he gives Montgomery County the shaft.
For years Duncan and others worked to bring a music hall to downtown Silver Spring, eventually getting the state to agree to foot the bill. Now that Duncan is an official at the University of Maryland, he’s trying to take the money promised to Silver Spring to open a music venue in Prince George’s County. Community leaders in Montgomery County have been moving forward on putting a music venue here and expect to use that money as it had been appropriated.
It’s not a shock that Duncan is eager to curry favor with his new masters in College Park, but the speed with which he went from being a supposed advocate for Montgomery County to someone willing to screw us to move his career forward illustrates how devoid of principal he is!