‘The Banks’ Music Venue: 4,000-Cap Indoor Venue To Fill Cinci Market Gap

Riverview at The Banks
courtesy MEMI – Riverview at The Banks
in Cincinnati

The Cincinnati Symphony has emerged as the developer of a new music venue to be built on The Banks development along the Cincinnati riverfront, after being selected over Columbus-based promoter PromoWest . 
Hamilton County Commissioners as well as the local city council anonymously chose the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as developer of the concert venue. 
 “This specific project we think fills a gap in the region,” Mike Smith, CEO of Music & Event Management, Inc., the venue management arm subsidiary of the CSO, told Pollstar. “It’s going to be a 4,000-seat, indoor general admission venue with two wraparound balconies overlooking the Ohio River, with full amenities,” MEMI also operates the Riverbend Music Center and PNC Pavilion amphitheatres and the 2,300-capacity, seated Taft Theatre in the city. 
“Immediately adjacent to it will be a summer, outdoor GA space that will seat about 8,000 people,” Smith added.  The venue’s working name, likely before it finds a naming sponsor, is “Riverview.”
Mayor John Cranley must still refer the matter back to the full city council for a vote and Smith said he’s confident city and county leaders will work out any details.
Smith noted similar-sized indoor venues being constructed such as The Armory in Minneapolis or the slightly larger Anthem in Washginton, D.C., adding, “We’re particularly excited because nothing in the region routes well holding excess of 1,500 capacity GA.”
Smith said they’re projecting about 160 events per year in the indoor venue as well as 20-25 outdoor seasonally, where the festival groupds will be public green space  when not in use for events. 
CSO beat out Columbus-based promoter PromoWest to build the  music venue at the development, with local politicians questioning its reluctance to use union labor.
“We’re not opposed to using union stagehands,” PromoWest CEO Scott Stienecker said, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. “It doesn’t make fiscal sense at the rates they’re at right now.”  Live Nation withdrew its request long before Monday’s meeting, with Smith saying MEMI has a relationship with the people at Live Nation going back 35 years and the promoting giant fully supports the project.
Leaders were split between PromoWest and the CSO, with some believing PromoWest, which produces Bunbury Festival in Cincinnati, would bring better acts to the new venue and provide competition.  The venues have a target opening of late Fall 2019. 
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