Fillmore is a County facility in disguise
By Silver Springer • Feb 6th, 2008 • Category: Business and Economic Development, Government and Politics
County executive Leggett emphasized what he wants his constituents to keep in mind about the facility that will act as the Fillmore music hall…the County is paying for it, so we own it and we we’re going to use it.
Hearing Mr. Leggett speak he is particularly vexed at traveling to Prince George’s County for Montgomery County Government events.
With that being said, it begs the question, why doesn’t the County use the Strathmore or better yet the North Bethesda Conference Center? Two public endorsed facilities that cost hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes combined.
The answer from Mr. Leggett is that they are too expensive to hold an event there citing some private firms that are having a hard time covering the costs as well. Apparently “NoBe’s†Conference Center can drain $60,000 for one event in some cases. The County only gets to use it six times a year and even then still pays operating costs.
The County plans on using the Fillmore in Silver Spring, with over 30,000 square feet the County wants to eliminate crossing the County border.
The bare minimum in the contract says that Live Nation has to put up 70 events a year but they aim for much higher, in fact more than double that at 150 events a year.
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“With that being said, it begs the question, why doesn’t the County use the Strathmore or better yet the North Bethesda Conference Center? Two public endorsed facilities that cost hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes combined.”
Because their location in the heart of some of Montgomery’s worst congestion makes them a pain to reach. The Bethesda to Rockville corridor is almost as bad as Northern Virginia in terms of traffic.
And when WRAMC moves to Bethesda Naval Hospital it will make the 50+ min. Red Line trip look like a sweet ride.
Strathmore is very easy to get to. It’s Metro accessible (including a huge parking lot) and maybe 1/2-mile from the beltway. It’s certainly no more difficult to get to than downtown Silver Spring.
It IS difficult from Silver Spring. Long ride on the Red Line via downtown, a jaunt of the usually backed up section of the Beltway between Georgia Ave and Wisconsin, or surface roads through Bethesda. If it wasn’t for Jones Bridge Road, I’d avoid that area completely.
We all know this facility is part of Leggett’s plan to boost Liquor revenue 50% over the next several years to finance his mediocre plans for County Government. They’re also studying a new sports arena in Germantown, a major horse park in the Ag Reserve, and selling off County property in Shady Grove to build more Applebee’s. They should bring back County Crest, MoCo’s private label liquor. Booze up Silver Spring.