Developers want to bring a new music venue, with a capacity for up to 3,300 people, to downtown Portland.
Scarborough-based Mile Marker Investments has proposed a music and event space for a vacant lot on Cumberland Avenue near city hall and the Merrill Auditorium. The plans also envision that restaurants and retail would be co-developed on the same block.
David Farmer, a spokesperson for Mile Marker Investments, said the proposed venue is modeled after the MGM Music Hall in Boston.
"A lot of shows get as far as Boston, and they don't make it up to Maine," he said. "Or, they don't make it up to Portland. And hopefully this will give them an opportunity to come here."
The proposed venue would be larger than the Merrill Auditorium and State Theater but smaller than the Cross Insurance Arena, supplementing the calendar of shows that are already booked for those facilities, Farmer said.
"What the new venue would provide is an opportunity to get a different type of act, a different kind of band, a different kind of performer, into Maine than we've had before," he added.
Concert promoter Live Nation, a subsidiary of Ticketmaster, would operate the new facility. Farmer said the goal is to bring around 125 shows a year to the new facility.
The proposal must still receive planning board approval. Developers hope to start construction next fall and open the venue in late 2027.
