Fencing poles were being placed Tuesday afternoon along the border of the amphitheater site. (Jonathan Spiers photos)
With another Richmond Folk Festival in the books, work is about to get rolling on the highly anticipated riverfront amphitheater that’s planned to keep the Tredegar hillside rocking.
Fencing is going up and site work is starting on the Richmond Amphitheater, the 7,500-capacity venue from Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Ventures that’s planned to open in spring 2025.
The developer behind Charlottesville’s Ting Pavilion has made recent filings with the city’s permit office, including for a building permit that was awarded the same day for temporary construction trailers and new buildings on the 4-acre site uphill from the Tredegar Iron Works complex.
Bruce Hazelgrove, chief administrative officer for NewMarket Corp., which owns the land and is leasing the site, said work was scheduled to start this week as soon as folk festival crews were done packing up.
“In theory they were supposed to mobilize Monday after the folk festival people cleared out and start rolling,” Hazelgrove said, adding that the development team was scheduled to have a meeting on the site today (Wednesday).
A rendering of the 7,500-seat outdoor amphitheater as it would be viewed from Second Street. (BizSense file photo)
Red Light is working on the project with IMGoing Events, a Virginia Beach-based firm led by longtime live music promoter and Cellar Door veteran Ken MacDonald.
Concerts would be put on by Starr Hill Presents, Red Light’s promotional arm. Red Light Management is a primary owner of Starr Hill Brewery, which has an outpost in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition neighborhood.
Charlottesville-based Martin Horn is the lead general contractor on the project, working locally with downtown-based contractor Conquest, Moncure & Dunn. Richmond-based 3North is the architect, and engineering firm TRC Cos. in Henrico is also on the project.
The group filed in recent weeks for a zoning compliance certificate and the building permit for what’s described in the filings as Gambles Hill Amphitheater, referring to the name of the hillside that’s part of NewMarket’s campus. NewMarket is retaining ownership of the site through a long-term lease with Red Light, which is responsible for funding and developing the amphitheater project.
The amphitheater would be fitted between the Tredegar complex and the NewMarket headquarters at the top of Gambles Hill.
The filings show the amphitheater’s orientation on the site, fitted between Tredegar and the filled-in portion of the Kanawha Canal, which follows a curve in the hillside that forms an amphitheater-shaped footprint. The filings also show a temporary stockpile site for soil and parking areas downhill from Second Street, and a route for equipment deliveries and laydowns around the Tredegar complex.
Announced last year, the $30 million development was given the green light this June, when City Council OK’d a performance grant agreement after agreeing to terms with the group in May. Per the agreement, the city would provide a 20-year performance grant based on the new incremental real estate and admissions tax revenue generated by the project to help offset the project cost.
The group is aiming to open the amphitheater in time for the 2025 outdoor concert season and expects to host 25-35 concerts per year. The venue also would host community events and is intended to be used by the folk festival, with flexibility to host 10,000 people or more. Existing parking is expected to accommodate the venue, similar to the folk festival and other events held at the riverfront.
A rendering of the Richmond Amphitheater in the works for the hillside beside Tredegar Iron Works. (3North)
Capshaw, who manages the Dave Matthews Band and is involved in the ownership or management of similar venues across the country, led the development of the 3,500-seat Ting Pavilion amphitheater on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. His Red Light Management group also co-manages the 6,800-capacity Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville.
The group has compared the Richmond venue in size to Ascend Amphitheater and to the Live Oak Bank Pavilion in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The Richmond Amphitheater site is just west of the construction site for CoStar Group’s planned high-rise at 600 Tredegar St. The $460 million office complex will include a 26-story tower and its own smaller amphitheater.
Fencing poles were being placed Tuesday afternoon along the border of the amphitheater site. (Jonathan Spiers photos)
With another Richmond Folk Festival in the books, work is about to get rolling on the highly anticipated riverfront amphitheater that’s planned to keep the Tredegar hillside rocking.
Fencing is going up and site work is starting on the Richmond Amphitheater, the 7,500-capacity venue from Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Ventures that’s planned to open in spring 2025.
The developer behind Charlottesville’s Ting Pavilion has made recent filings with the city’s permit office, including for a building permit that was awarded the same day for temporary construction trailers and new buildings on the 4-acre site uphill from the Tredegar Iron Works complex.
Bruce Hazelgrove, chief administrative officer for NewMarket Corp., which owns the land and is leasing the site, said work was scheduled to start this week as soon as folk festival crews were done packing up.
“In theory they were supposed to mobilize Monday after the folk festival people cleared out and start rolling,” Hazelgrove said, adding that the development team was scheduled to have a meeting on the site today (Wednesday).
A rendering of the 7,500-seat outdoor amphitheater as it would be viewed from Second Street. (BizSense file photo)
Red Light is working on the project with IMGoing Events, a Virginia Beach-based firm led by longtime live music promoter and Cellar Door veteran Ken MacDonald.
Concerts would be put on by Starr Hill Presents, Red Light’s promotional arm. Red Light Management is a primary owner of Starr Hill Brewery, which has an outpost in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition neighborhood.
Charlottesville-based Martin Horn is the lead general contractor on the project, working locally with downtown-based contractor Conquest, Moncure & Dunn. Richmond-based 3North is the architect, and engineering firm TRC Cos. in Henrico is also on the project.
The group filed in recent weeks for a zoning compliance certificate and the building permit for what’s described in the filings as Gambles Hill Amphitheater, referring to the name of the hillside that’s part of NewMarket’s campus. NewMarket is retaining ownership of the site through a long-term lease with Red Light, which is responsible for funding and developing the amphitheater project.
The amphitheater would be fitted between the Tredegar complex and the NewMarket headquarters at the top of Gambles Hill.
The filings show the amphitheater’s orientation on the site, fitted between Tredegar and the filled-in portion of the Kanawha Canal, which follows a curve in the hillside that forms an amphitheater-shaped footprint. The filings also show a temporary stockpile site for soil and parking areas downhill from Second Street, and a route for equipment deliveries and laydowns around the Tredegar complex.
Announced last year, the $30 million development was given the green light this June, when City Council OK’d a performance grant agreement after agreeing to terms with the group in May. Per the agreement, the city would provide a 20-year performance grant based on the new incremental real estate and admissions tax revenue generated by the project to help offset the project cost.
The group is aiming to open the amphitheater in time for the 2025 outdoor concert season and expects to host 25-35 concerts per year. The venue also would host community events and is intended to be used by the folk festival, with flexibility to host 10,000 people or more. Existing parking is expected to accommodate the venue, similar to the folk festival and other events held at the riverfront.
A rendering of the Richmond Amphitheater in the works for the hillside beside Tredegar Iron Works. (3North)
Capshaw, who manages the Dave Matthews Band and is involved in the ownership or management of similar venues across the country, led the development of the 3,500-seat Ting Pavilion amphitheater on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. His Red Light Management group also co-manages the 6,800-capacity Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville.
The group has compared the Richmond venue in size to Ascend Amphitheater and to the Live Oak Bank Pavilion in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The Richmond Amphitheater site is just west of the construction site for CoStar Group’s planned high-rise at 600 Tredegar St. The $460 million office complex will include a 26-story tower and its own smaller amphitheater.
Yay! more than twice the Ting in the most beautiful spot in the midatlantic? game changer
What is the Ting?
Reference to Charlottesville’s Ting Pavilion.
MOST beautiful spot in the MidAtlantic??
You sure? I’m not sure what the boundries are. Maybe most beautiful midatlantic spot in a large metro, idk…
New Amphitheater Proposal Threatens Riverfront’s EnvironmentPosted on July 17, 2022 by Scott When I moved to Richmond in the early nineties, it was a much different place. My parents begged me to live outside of the national murder capital, but I was interested in the original, post punk music scene that had emerged here. Midtown Grace Street nightclubs had formed a nucleus where you could walk and see, for a five dollar cover or two, up and coming local and natural bands. Over time, through A.B.C. raids and VCU ‘redevelopment’, this promising scene was split up and done away with. I could lament… Read more »
I grew up in Arlington and I’ve had friends lament the loss of the old Ballston, Rosslyn and Shirlington neighborhoods to high rise construction though like Richmond that county is laced with parkland. Change comes, Scott, and we’re getting old. But you have to roll with it and get the best you can from it.
Wise words. Rigidity is not really very Eastern Philosophy, and if you find you are getting sick of something happening in Richmond, you can always move the the Shenendoah Valley.
“I long for the times when Richmond was murder capital of the country and the buildings were rotting so much they had trees growing out of them. It was MY oasis.” Sorry Scott, sometimes things need to change for the better for more people than just you. We are still a growing population. People need places to live, work and be entertained. I would personally rather redevelop areas that have buildings with trees growing out of them than continue to push development further and further out, which I would argue create a much greater impact than redevelopment for housing or… Read more »
You are of course making the RATIONAL environmental argument, and I agree from that perspective, but of course the majority of people worldwide want to live in a suburban environment, at least after they grow up a bit. I’m not being snide — it’s facts.
Amphitheaters, by their nature, are mostly open green space. 25-35 days a year they’ll have an event. Oh the horror. This is a ridiculous piece of criticism.
There needs to be a limit on the length of some of these comments. There’s no way a comment should be twice as long as the article itself
AMEN!
HEY!!!!!
Interesting stuff. Read some of the toxins articles and learned a few things, but I think you are stretching on the relevance to the topic other than “people suck.” Ditto that crazy radical woman who writes books — sure, if you want to bring down civilization, sure, shut down all the things that produce stuff — the environmental groups ALL have problems, but she has things backwards in her need to have an enemy — you gotta convince the cos to do things better, not shut them down — you also gotta be sure that they, as she points out,… Read more »
Best idea yet. Now let’s figure out the transportation from The Fan, Museum District and Scott’s Addition to these events.
Agreed. I wish there were smaller van/buses that GRTC could operate on limited routes around weekends and certain events. Uber is great but it would be great to consolidate traffic.
Get her done! The city looks forward this project. I hope the city invest in all of the empty spaces around this area to bring it back to life.
Would be nice if they unburied the canal right there and build it out like the canal walk with some nice walking paths on each side and street lights with some small fountains in the middle to keep the water moving so algie does not to grow.
This canal can be developed all the way to Maymont in theory….I believve it’s been discussed and the reason for the 2nd st. bridge over it. Even if it starts/ends on the hill west of 2nd street it would be awefully cool to have a water taxi to/from Byrd Park area to this venue and of course the other recreation in the area.
Only if the city does what it did downtown with an enhancements to the combined CSO and buries the sewer pipes that run at the bottom of the canal from Maymont to DOM offices. With the CSO cleanup estimated over $1B in costs and the canal improvements not included like it was downtown in the 1990s work with the CSO and floodwall, I do not see its restoration in my lifetime.
Thanks for the reality check!
GONDOLAS!
I think the bigger news is they got a same day issuance of a building permit….it took 3 weeks of emails, calls to my Council liaison, and back channel connections with other city staff just for me to get a gas permit to change out my existing gas stove last fall. PS how is this a game changer???? We have VA Credit Union Live (aka old Strawberry Hill Amphitheater that holds 6,000) and ServPro Pavillion (Meadow event park and claims it can host 30k). Being new it will bring in some more musical acts but it will probably just purge… Read more »
game changer bc those 2 places are dumps
I wouldn’t call Tredegar and the New Market headquarter places dumps.
I think Craig was referring to VA Credit Union Live (which is not a bad venue, but it has no lawn and doesn’t bring many acts to town) and the ServePro Pavilion (which like its predecessor at Innsbrook is essentially a field with a stage).
correct. The area right in front of the stage at ServPro is astroturf. Also way to busy with all these different pricing tiered areas intruding into the sight lines. Below average place to see a show. VACU is fine once the show starts but the amenities out there are pretty poor, long lines for alcohol, parking in and out is pretty bad and frankly it just has an old feel to it. There’s a reason that until the current promoters brought it back from the dead there were no shows there except for the state fair for 20 years or… Read more »
Nashville built an outdoor event space like this near their Cumberland riverfront. I attended shows there and it was fabulous. If there was any flaw, it was that it drew too many people!
Ting Pavilion is a favorite place to see shows, despite the drive. I’ve loved the sound of this new amphitheatre since it was first mentioned. Bring it on!