Group Wants Sister Hall in Silver Spring
By Aruna Jain
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 30, 2006
What if country singer Roseanne Cash, folk rocker Billy Bragg or a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock regularly performed not only at the nationally known Birchmere Music Hall in Alexandria, but also at a sister venue in Maryland?
What if that venue was located across from the Round House Theatre and the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, creating a "Broadway effect" along Colesville Road along the northern edge of downtown Silver Spring?
If they get their way, a few Silver Spring activists hope to use election-year momentum to carry forward a plan to renovate the site of an old J.C. Penney store to make way for a second Birchmere.
"It would complete the entertainment scene that we've got, and it would help bolster Silver Spring's reputation," said Michael Diegel, a civic activist and founder of Silver Spring Forward, a citizens group he and a couple of neighbors created last month to help push the Birchmere idea.
The Birchmere, a thriving 500-seat venue in Alexandria, has hosted big names in rock, jazz, blues, bluegrass, country and folk music for 40 years and has a loyal Maryland following.
But some Marylanders find it tough to make the across-the-river trek, particularly on weeknights for the Birchmere's 7:30 shows. "One some days it takes just as long to get from Alexandria to Richmond as it does to get to Silver Spring," said Birchmere owner Gary Oelze.
Shortly after the idea surfaced in 2003, county officials suggested the vacant J.C. Penney property in Silver Spring, owned by the Lee Development Group Inc. Birchmere owners were interested, especially since Silver Spring was poised at the time for major revitalization.
Oelze and other Birchmere owners proposed a public-private partnership that has since lain dormant, as focus shifted to the completion of other county-funded arts venues, such as the $100 million Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda.
Until, that is, Silver Spring Forward brought the issue back onto the table.
Diegel's group has received support, including letters from two Democratic candidates for Montgomery County executive, Council member Steven A. Silverman (D-At Large) and former member Isiah "Ike" Leggett. Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D), who is running for governor, said he also supports public involvement in the project.
Other backers include Bruce H. Lee, president of Lee Development Group -- which owns several Silver Spring properties, including the proposed site for the Birchmere.
It's way too early to tell what's going to happen, Lee said. Under any plan, the Birchmere would be an amenity that comes with an as-yet-undefined development of the two-acre J.C. Penney site -- which is zoned for commercial, residential or office space.
"It's the cart before the horse," Lee said. "We don't have a project at this time and to have the amenity" -- the Birchmere -- "come first is quite complicated."
Still, he believes there is an enormous audience waiting to be tapped. Silver Spring has come a long way.
He points out the recent Silver Spring Jazz Festival in September, he said. Wynton Marsalis and a host of other musicians performed for audiences in and around Fenton Street and Ellsworth Avenue, the heart of Silver Spring. Thousands came.
"It was just unreal," Lee said of the event. "I honestly felt like I had my first born. It was well managed; everything went smoothly."
David Edgerley, director of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corp., also would like to see the Birchmere in Silver Spring, but with construction and land prices rising sharply, he said a lot of details must be worked out. In recent years, the Round House Theatre and AFI Silver Theatre opened in downtown Silver Spring with some public funding.
Oelze worries that there might be "arts fatigue" in Montgomery County with the recent investment in other arts venues. But a Birchmere in Silver Spring would be a "home run," he said. And with a new county administration could come renewed interest in the project.
"We've had some indication that some potential new administration [would] like to see the thing get back on the burner."
"It's all in the county's lap right now," Oelze said.
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