Live Nation set to select Event Centre design team
The former Beamish & Crawford Brewery site, earmarked for the Cork Event Centre. Pic: Larry Cummins.
LIVE Nation, the global entertainment giant that will run the long awaited €80m Cork Event Centre, are on the verge of appointing a design team to the project.
A source told the Irish Examiner that the team was “more or less selected” and that all that was needed was the final sign-off from corporate HQ in Los Angeles.
In another sign of movement on the project, a company called Cork Venue Enterprises Ltd has been set up by directors of Live Nation. The company’s principal activity is stated as ‘renting and operating of own or leased real estate’.
Among the directors of Cork Venue Enterprises Ltd, set up in February, are Mike Adamson, CEO of Live Nation Ireland, and director of Live Nation Ireland Holdings, as well as music promoter Denis Desmond. Denis Desmond is also a director of Live Nation Gaiety Ireland Holdings Ltd.
The news from Cork City Council, who are overseeing the Event Centre process, is also positive. A spokesperson said discussions had been intensive with developers BAM and operators Live Nation over the last few months and that legal agreements to reflect the funding arrangements “have now been agreed in principle”.
“Live Nation is finalising internal approval to mobilise a design team,” the spokesperson said.
The beleaguered history of the proposed 6,000-seater venue is one that has caused considerable embarrassment at both local and national level for both elected representatives and members of Cork City Council’s executive. The sod was turned five years ago by then Fine Gael Taoiseach Enda Kenny and current Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has more or less staked his reputation on it. It’s been beset by funding problems and an initial commitment of €20m in public money has since risen to a €50m once-off government grant to BAM, with the developer to contribute in the order of €30m. However it’s unclear if €80m is still enough to cover the cost of the project given reported hikes in the cost of building materials, particularly timber, and with supply chain issues exacerbated by Covid-19 and Brexit.
Live Nation was also badly hit by the pandemic, with live concerts and festivals cancelled worldwide, and thousands of staff either furloughed or laid off.
However the company has told Rolling Stone magazine that it expects a “lucrative post-pandemic touring cycle”.
If Live Nation bosses in LA give the green light to mobilise a design team for the Event Centre, it’s not clear how soon construction could start at the South Main Street site, which once housed the Beamish and Crawford Brewery. Recent estimates suggested it could be 2023.
