WESTBROOK — A lot of work has to be completed at the site of Maine Savings Pavilion between now and the first show May 26, but organizers are confident everything will get done.
“You look out there right now and think we have a long way to go, but we have done this so many times before,” Chris Rudolph, a senior director at Waterfront Concerts, said Tuesday at an event to update the public and thank partners.
The stage is scheduled to arrive Thursday and the venue will be fully constructed by mid-month, he said. Once that is done, the site will be ready for its first concert, Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals, on May 26.
The Westbrook venue, he said, will triple the capacity of the Maine State Pier in Portland, where Waterfront Concerts had been putting on shows for the last five years.
“It provides an opportunity to bring in acts that the pier was just not big enough for,” he said.
Jon Dow, general manager of Waterfront Concerts, is excited about that possibility.
“We’ve had a great time at the Maine State Pier,” Dow said, “but I’ve taken everything I wish I could have done there and focused on that with this site in such a way the customer experience should be unmatched.”
Dow said the Maine Savings Pavilion will offer a visual type of show not before offered in the area.
“We are going to have artists bring in video walls and lasers and lights and stuff you haven’t seen anywhere else in southern Maine,” he said.
The concert venue, which will hold up to 16 events between May and September, is a part of Rock Row, a multi-phased commercial and residential project planned at the old Pike Quarry site between Main Street, Larrabee Road, Westbrook Arterial and the Portland line.
To date, 10 other shows have been booked: Slightly Stoopid/Tribal Seeds/Matisyahu/HIRIE on June 15; Young the Giant/Fitz and the Tantrums on June 20; Buddy Guy/Kenny Wayne Shepherd on June 22; Shinedown on June 29; Joe Bonnamassa on July 28; Rebelution/Protje/Collie Buddz/DJ Mackie on Aug. 2; Dark Star Orchestra on Aug. 4; Alice Cooper/Halestorm/Motionless in White on Aug. 10; John Fogerty on Aug. 11; and Flogging Molly/Social Distortion/The Devil Makes Three/Les Butcherettes on Aug. 30.
At the event Tuesday, Josh Levy, a principal at property owner Waterstone Properties Group, said the concert venue is a key component for the vision of the 100-acre site and something that many of the tenants he has talked to are excited about.
“We really think this could be a great economic driver for not only for the project, but for the city,” Levy said.
John Reed, president and CEO of Maine Savings Federal Credit Union, said Rock Row will “change the landscape of the greater Westbrook region in a positive way.”
“It is very exciting to be part of that,” he said.
Westbrook Economic Development Director Daniel Stevenson said the Rock Row project, which as proposed includes restaurants, retail shops, hotels, residences, movie theaters, medical offices and outdoor recreational space, will “be transformative for Westbrook, Portland and all of Maine.”
At full build-out, Rock Row will cover more than 2 million square feet, he said, making it the largest economic development project in the state.
So far only two phases of the project have been approved by the city Planning Board: the concert venue and a retail area at Main Street and Larrabee Road that will house Market Basket, The Paper Store and Starbucks. That site is set to open by this time next year.
Levy expects to be before the Planning Board again soon to get permitting for the next phase, which would include a 25,000-square-foot food and beer hall, 110-room hotel, 12-screen movie theater, 150 residential units and additional restaurants and retail overlooking a pedestrian plaza.
Michael Kelley can be reached at 780-9106 or mkelley@keepmecurrent.com or on Twitter @mkelleynews.
Maine Savings Pavilion, the city’s first outdoor concert venue, pictured in this rendering, will open May 26 for a concert by Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals.
To thank them for the work they put in to get the construction of Maine Savings Pavilion off the ground, Chris Rudolph, of Waterfront Concerts, presented representatives from Maine Savings Federal Credit Union, the city of Westbrook and Shaw Bros. Construction with guitars during a construction launch ceremony Tuesday.
Jon Dow of Waterfront Concert, right, explains the layout of the Maine Savings Pavilion during a tour of the construction site with Anton Melchionda of Waterstone Properties Group, left, and Chris Rudolph of Waterfront Concerts. Eleven shows have been booked at the site, with an additional three that will be announced soon.
Later this week, the Maine Savings Pavilion stage will be delivered, giving the site the feel of a concert venue.
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