In a conversation with Mayor Mark Sutcliffe after a breakfast networking event at City Hall, Live Nation Entertainment’s Erik Hoffman said the National Capital Region was “overdue” for a place like the planned 2,000-seat hall.
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The company that’s building a new music and entertainment venue in the former downtown Chapters store plans to open the space to users from across the city in a bid to boost the local music industry and help revive the ByWard Market, one of its top executives said Thursday.
In a conversation with Mayor Mark Sutcliffe after a breakfast networking event at City Hall, Live Nation Entertainment’s Erik Hoffman said the National Capital Region was “overdue” for a place like the planned 2,000-seat hall.
Hoffman, the president of Live Nation’s Canadian music operations, called the 60,000-square-foot building at the corner of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive the “perfect spot” for the facility.
“It’s a beautiful location,” he said, adding that while Live Nation will be responsible for managing the space and organizing much of its programming, other groups will be able to stage events there as well.
“We’re not the only creative people around, so we want to create a venue that has a bunch of soul in it and feels very welcoming for other promoters to use,” Hoffman said.
The National Capital Commission purchased the two-storey building, which was occupied by Chapters from 1996 to 2022, from a private Quebec company in late 2023 for $21.8 million.
Live Nation Canada signed an agreement to lease the property from the NCC earlier this year. Hoffman said the company plans to start renovating the site next month and is aiming to have it ready to welcome performers by the end of next year.
The venue will be designed to accommodate a wide range of live shows, Hoffman added, with general admission seating on the main level that can be expanded or reduced as necessary and a mezzanine and box seats on the second floor.
“We really feel like this is the best of all those worlds, where you have a very premium space that has the flexibility to be seated for a comedy show or will be everything that you would see in a hip-hop or rock (venue),” he explained.
“It’s kind of the best of a soft-seat theatre but with the soul of a nightclub. We feel like it’s going to be hugely successful here.”
The Ottawa native said he hopes the venue will draw more visitors to the ByWard Market and breathe new life into a part of the city that’s often made headlines for issues such as crime and homelessness in recent years.
A music industry lifer, Hoffman told the audience his affinity for the area goes back decades. He said one of his first jobs was being the sound man at The Pit, a tiny live music venue in the basement of a bar near the corner of Dalhousie and Rideau streets, when he was 16.
“When it was in full form, it felt as good as any international city,” he said of the Market. “It was a hub of restaurants and entertainment, and it can absolutely be that again.”
