Warfield’s ‘New Tenant’

San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre, along with the abandoned office space next door that once housed the Examiner newspaper, has been sold to a developer for $12 million. With it will apparently come a new tenant; that means Clear Channel has two years left on its lease before someone else takes it over.

So said new owner David Addington of Fair Market Properties in an interview with the San Francisco Business Times. Addington recently purchased nearby property on Market Street that he plans to redevelop into about 600 mini-condos. This second purchase includes the theatre and an office building that is run down and in one of the worst neighborhoods of the city.

Addington told the paper he didn’t know what he was planning to do with the Examiner building. But according to the writer he spoke to, Addington is planning to keep the Warfield a live music venue.

Bill Graham Presents – which has been a subsidiary of SFX, then Clear Channel, for several years – has been synonymous with the Warfield and has been promoting shows there for decades.

So, who will be the “unnamed tenant” to assume the lease in about two years? The usual suspects include Another Planet Entertainment LLC – run by Graham proteges Gregg Perloff and Sherry Wasserman. Then there’s House of Blues Entertainment.

But then there’s AEG Live, funded by billionaire Philip Anschutz, who recently purchased San Francisco’s Examiner newspaper from the Fang family and is turning the three-days-a-week freebie into a daily and expanding into several markets nationwide.

The Examiner building? Anschutz? AEG Live? One source told Pollstar to follow that trail to come up with the answer on the future of the Warfield. There was no comment from AEG at press time, basically because the head honchos were out of the office due to the massive Coachella festival in SoCal. BGP President Lee Smith was traveling at press time and also could not be reached for comment.

As it stands, The Warfield has its plate full. In May, the venue hosts Nine Inch Nails, Audioslave, Ray Lamontagne and two Pixies concerts, among other shows.

Joe Reinartz