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The 1,350-capacity Staircase (click here for the listing) in Pittston is up for grabs with an opening price of $795,000. At press time, there were zero bids.
“The venue is available because the sole founding mom/pop owners aren’t geared and scaled for efficient operation of a venue of this magnitude,” according to the listing in the Commercial Real Estate section.
The two-level masonry building has hosted Gretchen Wilson, Black Eyed Peas, Tesla, and Keller Williams, among several other nationally touring acts in the past two years.
Sources told Pollstar that the building has already been sold and will be converted into a veterinarian hospital. The eBay listing is a last-ditch effort to gain leverage during the closing period. The purchase includes the facility and parking area. However, although the eBay listing says it’s a “turnkey” deal, we hear that everything that isn’t nailed down has already been removed.
The Staircase locked its doors December 10th, according to The Citizens’ Voice.
“The trend in music is changing. The Staircase was built for live music; it was designed to be loud,” owner Jimmy O’Malley told the paper. “Now, people want to go to smaller bars and just have background music. At the Staircase, the music was the focus.”
O’Malley and his wife, Mary Pat, cited declining crowds and escalating overhead costs as their reasons to shutter.
The venue opened at a different location in 1974 and moved to its current locale in 2002. The O’Malleys purchased the building from Mary Pat’s brother and a co-owner around 1994, according to the Voice.
Concerts East has promoted several shows at the venue including Sum 41, Third Eye Blind, Dark Star Orchestra, Story Of The Year, Hatebreed, and Gavin DeGraw, to name a few.