Critics Question Fillmore Plans

9:30 Club's Offer For Silver Spring Tantalizes Some

When negotiations to bring a Birchmere Music Hall to Silver Spring collapsed after five years in the works, Montgomery County leaders were anxious to find a new partner to enliven a boarded-up downtown block. County Executive Isiah Leggett had spent political capital fighting to fund the Birchmere project, so his advisers were relieved to learn that Live Nation, a national brand, was interested in taking its place.

"I thought, wow, a national company with a great name and access to a lot of acts," said Timothy Firestine, Leggett's chief administrative officer. "I thought it was an exciting opportunity."

But even as Leggett (D) intends to finalize an agreement with Live Nation by the end of next month, a group of residents and County Council members are questioning whether his plan to spend $8 million in state and local funds to build one of the company's Fillmore clubs is the best deal for taxpayers.

They are urging Leggett to consider a pitch from local promoter Seth Hurwitz, who says he can provide a "superior music venue at a dramatically reduced cost." Hurwitz, whose company owns the District's 9:30 Club and operates Merriweather Post Pavilion, said he is willing to pay twice as much in monthly rent as Live Nation, contribute $2 million to defray taxpayer cost, split the naming rights with the county and offer the venue rent-free to some community nonprofit groups.

"The idea that you need to subsidize anyone in this place is nuts. Why they'd feel they need to give the place away is beyond me," said Hurwitz, of Bethesda-based IMP Productions. "This is such a ridiculous deal."

Much is at stake for the county executive in the costliest, highest-profile, public project he has announced since taking office a year ago. Leggett and the owners of the property at the old JCPenney site, Lee Development Group, say the offer from Hurwitz arrived too late. To entertain Hurwitz's proposal would undermine the county's credibility in future business deals, they say.

"You may be able to produce an immediate beneficial cost, but down the line, the loss of the credibility, your reputation, your honest dealings with people," Leggett said in an interview last week. "Not negotiating in good faith costs the county big time going down the line."

He called the counteroffer "just a distraction."

But some Silver Spring residents and council members, who control the county's checkbook, are not convinced.

"I don't consider the case closed in support of any one operator," said council member George L. Leventhal (D-At Large).

A neighborhood advisory committee appointed by the county executive is also pressing Leggett to look at Hurwitz's homegrown offer before signing a deal with the Los Angeles company.

"If a local business owner is able to do what a national brand is able to do, and in a less expensive way, I don't know how or why we're not entertaining such offers," said Evan Glass, president of the South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association.