Don Strasburg recalls the time, about five years back, when he was driving to a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, a place that his company books more shows at any other promoter.

“I visit a building on both sides of Highway 6 using this large sign that states, ‘For Lease. Contact Tyler,’ and I did that after I return to the workplace,” stated Strasburg, the co-president and mature gift client for AEG Presents Rocky Mountains, Colorado’s leading music promoter. “Chuck (Morris, AEG’s Denver-based president) and I went around to watch it and Tyler states, ‘Look, I don’t believe this is going to work for you, however I know of this new development out of Westfield …. ”

Strasburg, Morris and his group was looking for almost a decade for the right place to build a new AEG Presents music place, having decided that purchasing the otherwise appealing Fillmore Auditorium — which they created, and that is currently commanded by rival promoter Live Nation — wasn’t an option.

“It’s still a very pretty great place, but the neighborhood has developed and grown, and we own and run a good deal of incredible rooms at Colorado (including Denver’s historical Gothic, Ogden and Bluebird theaters) it became obvious that we needed a more robust option from the mid-size ballroom lane. ”

“Mid-size ballroom” is still industry-speak for its Goldilocks-like ability of this Fillmore — only right for touring bands who are too big for theatres, but not big enough to fill arenas such as the Pepsi Center. When Strasburg and other AEG execs visited this brand new website , they didn’t have to talk about whether it was right to them.

“We were all looking at each other and we only understood,” Strasburg said. “This location was exactly what we were looking for. ”

Andy Cross, The Denver PostWorkers place the finishing touches on the about the tiered-row seating area of the Mission Ballroom July 24, 2019.
Denver live music gets a boost

That location, at 4242 Wynkoop St., on the edge of the River North Arts District, now hosts AEG Presents’ latest venue and its greatest single-site investment from town. Mission Ballroom, that opens on Aug. 7, is also the very first major, purpose-built music place to grace the subway region in years, a state-of-the-art answer to the increasing number of music fans who are lapping up AEG’s hundreds of annual concerts — and a significant hazard to the quality of bands Live Nation can draw to the similarly-sized Fillmore.

The center concept inside the 60,000-square-foot Mission is adaptability. It’therefore made to grow and shrink depending on presence expectations, with a detachable stage mounted on trolleys that could change the room from 2,200-capacity to 3,950-capacity. A recent trip of the largely completed place — which looked spare but glossy under bright building lights — backed up AEG’s claims about “unrivaled sight traces through tiered rows” (an idea they lifted out of Red Rocks Amphitheatre), intricate sound and lighting, and a general-admission dancing flooring that keeps the classic, elbow-to-elbow concert experience.

Needless to say, there are pricey VIP options that provide more distance and better amenities, and they’re right in the thick of everything, as if a first-class airline seat was plunked down at the center of coach. Full-service bars, eye-popping local artwork, and a general minimalist design blend with AEG’s booking art to stoke optimism concerning the venue’s role in Denver’s music landscape.

Already, Mission’s coming week is full of displays by The Lumineers (Aug. 7), FKJ (Aug. 8), Trey Anastasio Band (Aug. 9-10), Gregory Alan Isakov (Aug. 11), Ben Harper (Aug. 12), Steve Miller Band (Aug. 13) and Herbie Hancock with Kamasi Washington (Aug. 14). Those names, and the dozens more reserved through the end of the year (Phantogram, Ween, Ludacris, Wilco, etc.) hint at both the scale and diversity of those bands that AEG has managed to lure to the place.

“We enjoy the location for many reasons, but it just happens we also chose an area near the train tracks,” Strasburg said. “It might not be the right place to live, however it’s still a great place to throw a party. ”

Contrary to other RiNo improvements, Mission sits on a rather uncontroversial patch of land that previously hosted the Midtown Industrial Center, only a couple blocks away from the years-long redevelopment of Brighton Boulevard that critics say has quickened accessibility and affordability problems in the region.

Mission, however, is a part of Westfield Co.’s 14-acre, mixed-use North Wynkoop development at the north end of Brighton Boulevard. North Wynkoop will also sponsor AEG Presents Rocky Mountains’ 60-odd full-time workers (who are relocating their offices by a longtime spot on Santa Fe Drive), and the place itself will apply roughly 100 individuals on show nights.

This helps Mission feel less isolated since, really , it’therefore a tiny walk from the otherwise dense network of bars, restaurants, galleries and retail in everything ’therefore generally considered RiNo.

This will change. In June, Houston-based Hines and partner Cresset Capital Management paid $21 million for a roughly 2.5-acre website along Brighton Boulevard, just west of Mission, according to Business Den. Cresset is looking to build a 10-story, 392-unit apartment building with 15,000 square feet of retail area. The project is still years out, however it’s easy to determine why AEG views the place as up-and-coming.

“We need the place to symbolize the community, and specifically the artistic community,” Strasburg said. “Being an arts facility appears to fit in very closely with the culture of RiNo. ”

Andy Cross, The Denver PostWorkers clean up the reception area in the Mission Ballroom July 24, 2019.
The evolution of RiNo

Strasburg would not comment on the agreement that AEG brokered with Westfield — “It’s a fascinating, long-term project,” he also explained — and Westfield agents did not return calls or mails for comment. But Strasburg stated Mission cost more than $10 million to build (it’s likely four to four times that, if similar-sized construction jobs are any direct ) and River North Art District boosters have welcomed it.

“It’s real game-changer,” stated Tracy Weil, co-founder and president of the River North Arts District, that has grappled with issues of gentrification and sensed friendliness toward working musicians amid rapid expansion. “AEG did their due diligence and participated with the district. There’s not any more formal venture, however they’t commissioned local artists to do pieces there and are throwing a concert as the finale to the Crush (street- along with wall-art) Festival this season as a design the very first week of September. ”

Weil stated most arts-district business owners are hoping that concert-goers will end off before or after shows to encourage the dozens of little businesses. And they’re not leaving anything to chance.

“It’s certainly part of an ‘entertainment district’ mindset,” Weil said. “We’re just finishing up our RiNo parking study, which includes notions like a possible shuttle that will circulate across the district. However, we will need to get the rentable scooters to go beyond 38th Avenue, since right now they just stop there. ”

North Wynkoop is a roughly five-minute walk to RTD’s 38th and Blake A-Line commuter rail station, and will offer parking at a 240-vehicle underground garage combined with scattered surface lots. Ride-shares and bicycles will be invited, however it was seen how easy the area will be to browse on show nights.

Strasburg confessed that certain experiments at the run-up to Mission’s launching didn’t go too as he’d hoped, such as the Mission Fair Ticketing system — essentially a lottery to which fans can join beforehand.

Related Articles

Flaural is just one of Colorado’s best bands, even though it’s hardly ever here

Netflix film uses footage of Boulder’s legendary Flatirons to depict …a little city in California?

Diana Ross solidified her diva standing at Red Rocks — despite a slow beginning

You may stumble upon a mini concert when going for a hike this summer

Post Malone and Swae Lee will perform Denver’s Pepsi Center this fall

“We were amazed, frankly, that it wasn’t obtained improved,” Strasburg said. Negative online answers created AEG rethink the machine, and it’s just going to be “some thing in our toolbelt to utilize when appropriate,” he explained.

AEG Presents runs 22 regional offices around the planet, but it makes sense the firm would want to spend tens of millions of dollars from the Denver market, given that founder and Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz lives here. Unlike most major U.S. music markets, where Live Nation is the most dominant promoter, AEG Presents essentially owns the Denver concert spectacle.

Officials at the Denver office of Live Nation did not return calls or mails for comment, and possibly that’s understandable: AEG’s new place looks poised to make sure the company remains No. 1 at Colorado for a long time to come.

“The driving force behind this is doing many shows from so many diverse places through the years, and then stating, ‘Hey, we have a opportunity to do this from scratch,’ ” Strasburg said. ” ‘What have we always wanted but couldn’t get since we were limited by something? What have we really learned through the years? ’ This really can be that venue. ”

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get entertainment news sent directly to your inbox.

Buy Tickets for every event – Sports, Concerts, Festivals and more buy tickets