The site would also serve as a company campus for Cescaphe Events Group, a catering company based in Philadelphia.
At last Tuesday night’s Fishtown Neighbors Association meeting, representatives from Live Nation and Cescaphe Events Group gave an informal presentation on a potential new concert venue to be located at 1355 Beech St., which is the current site of an abandoned PECO power plant called the Delaware Generating Station. The site would also serve as a company campus for Cescaphe Events Group, a catering company based in Philadelphia. Also included in the site’s plan is a continuation of the Delaware River Trail.
“This is really two projects coming together as one to activate the waterfront and activate this property,” said zoning attorney Ron Patterson, who is representing the project. “Joe [Volpe, owner of Cescaphe Events Group] has had [a desire] to move his headquarters there, activate the river trail now that you have control of it, to allow public access through it. To maybe have some series of restaurants, perhaps a banquet hall in there.”
Geoff Gordon, Live Nation’s regional vice president of the northeast corridor, said the venue would be an outdoor boutique amphitheater. According to renderings, the company’s campus will be located inside the physical Delaware Generating Station building, while the concert venue would be located right next to the building, but still on the same property.
He said the venue would switch between seated admission and general admission depending on the genre of music being performed at each show, and it would be smaller in size than Camden’s BB&T Pavilion, yet still larger than a typical theater. The venue would hold approximately 5,000 to 6,000 people during shows with seated admission and between 7,000 and 8,000 during general admission shows. For comparison, Gordon said, the Mann Center in West Philadelphia seats approximately 14,000, so it would be about half the size of that.
“Most important to DRWC is the extension of public space,” said Joe Forkin, president of the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, which is responsible for the Delaware River Trail. “The public river trail would bring complete unfettered access to the community next to the river.”
“My dream and goal and vision for this property was to make it my campus of our company,” said Volpe, who’s company, he said, boasts 400 employees scattered throughout Philadelphia in offices in Northern Liberties, Fishtown and North Broad. “My goal is to bring all of our offices together and create one big campus for our company. Obviously it’s an enormous undertaking to do that.”
However, Volpe also said he sees a restaurant and “other entertainment uses” for the area.
“We’re talking to multiple tenants now about different kinds of uses,” he said, “but they’re all public-facing uses where people can go and enjoy the building or enjoy the surrounding areas.”
Gordon said the site will likely be fitted with a drop off area for those traveling to the concert via Uber or Lyft.
“We also have initiatives where you can actually purchase those opportunities in advance prior to the show as part of a package,” said Gordon. “If you want to get an Uber along with a ticket, along with the experience, that’s available to you.”
Curt Voss, general manager of Live Nation’s BB&T Pavillion, called Ubering to concerts “the way of the future.”
“You’ll see that in Camden right now,” he said. “The Ubers line up at my building in Camden and on Festival Pier. That is definitely the way of the future.”
Volpe said that as of now, he’s not sure what the plan is for the pier that extends over the river near the property.
“We don’t have a use yet for the pier,” he said. “We know it has to be a public use. I don’t want to start speculating, but we’re thinking some kind of small restaurant or beer garden. Something to tie into the building.”
Volpe maintained that he wanted the space to also be open to the community.
“I am not a developer,” he said, “but one thing I can tell you is that my heart is in the right spot. I am very community oriented. I want to see the trail come to fruition. I’m a big believer in that trail and working with Joe [Forkin] and DRWC to get that to happen.”
The next FNA meeting regarding the venue/entertainment complex will take place on July 17 at the Fishtown Recreation Center, where it will be further discussed, but not voted on. Voting will take place at the final meeting for the venue, which will be Aug. 14.
