Live Nation-backed Portland concert hall back on track after land-use fight

Portland is on track to have two new mid-sized concert venues after all.

A venue proposed by Live Nation in the city’s Central Eastside overcame a second appeal last week and can proceed to construction. And a Lloyd Center venue breaks ground this month.

The 3,500-capacity Live Nation hall was in doubt while it sat before the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals, a tribunal that referees land-use fights.

David Leiken, who runs the local concert promoter Double Tee Concerts, had appealed a decision under the former Portland City Council that cleared the way for the Live Nation venue to start construction at Southeast Water Avenue between Salmon and Main streets.

The arguments by Leiken largely followed the lead of opponents who fought the venue last year before City Council. Among their land-use concerns was that the area wasn’t safe for pedestrians because of nearby train tracks, and that the transportation options were inadequate to the task of supporting the venue.

But LUBA last week issued an opinion siding with the city and allowing the project to move ahead, as first reported by Willamette Week.

Portland Councilor Jamie Dunphy, who was not part of the LUBA appeal but opposed the venue before his election to the City Council, said he was “surprised and disappointed with LUBA’s decision.”

The Central Eastside industrial area had too few sidewalks, streetlamps and protected railroad crossings, Dunphy said, “and that’s before even discussing the fact we are actively welcoming an enormous corporate monopoly who is being sued” for alleged anticompetitive business practices.

The U.S. Department of Justice has accused Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary of forming a monopoly in live entertainment.

Leiken said he hoped regulators would act in consumers’ best interests.

“It seems hard to believe that the City of Portland gave the go-ahead for this project with that dark cloud hanging over Live Nation and Ticketmaster, and the questions surrounding the site,” he said by email.

The Live Nation venue is being built by Colas Development Group and Beam Development, who were previously targeting a 2026 opening date. It’s not clear if that still holds. Project officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Portland-based Monqui Presents and global live events company AEG Presents are bringing a 68,000-square-foot venue with space for up to 4,250 people to the site of a former Nordstrom on Northeast Multnomah Street. They expect to open in 2027.

This story has been updated with comment from Leiken.