One of the Lloyd Center Mall's long dead retail anchors may soon be demolished to make way for a mid to large size music venue—large enough, in various configurations, for audiences of anywhere from 2,000 to 4,250 visitors.

Back in January, Willamette Week reported the first inklings of this plan, after finding that LA / Portland firm Works Progress Architecture was looking into tearing down the mall's west retail anchor on behalf of an unnamed developer. The commercial space was formerly a Nordstrom but has been vacant since 2015, after the luxury chain closed it and another store in Vancouver for poor sales performance.

Two show promotion companies, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) Presents and Monqui Presents, confirmed July 9 that they're teaming up to build a brand new venue on the site. A joint press release revealed their plans for an adjustable space "spanning 68,000 square feet" with "state-of-the-art acoustics and sightlines." Inside, the main hall would feature a movable stage, flexible seating, and a second floor mezzanine overlooking the show area. Outside, current designs would tear down the attached skybridge over NE 9th, but preserve the outdoor plaza that abuts NE Multnomah. The site's location situates it smack in the center of the Lloyd Center's public transit hub and bike corridor, as well as adjacent to the mall's plentiful parking.

The release also ventures into the area's land use zoning, explaining that the proposed build is already in a commercial use zone, "which facilitates this development without requiring special use permits or zoning changes." That's a non-typical media release tidbit which suggests this project wants to be seen as an answer to the Central Eastside venue project Live Nation has been trying to get off the ground since 2022.

Portland's music scene has watched the Live Nation venue plans with a mix of desire and trepidation. Even before the notorious entertainment company was sued by the Department of Justice, plenty of artists and music industry professionals had been sounding the alarm about Live Nation's exclusivity demands and monopolistic control squashing smaller competitors in other indie scenes.

On a local scale, Monqui is a concert promotion giant—packing fans into venues like Wonder Ballroom, McMenamins' Edgefield, Grand Lodge, and Mission Theater, among others in Oregon and Washington—but its partnership with AEG is interesting because AEG is considered a comparable, if smaller, competitor with Live Nation.

Only next to Live Nation could AEG appear small in its field, as the company produces concerts and entertainment across the globe. Both operate their own ticketing services—AEG operates AXS and Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster in 2010. Both have faced criticism and legal action over non-compete radius clauses in the contracts of artists playing their respective music festivals, Coachella and Lollapalooza. 

At the same time, plenty of people in the city want this venue. There's a noticeable gap in Portland's concert space sizes: between Moda Center (19,000 at full rip; 6,500 in its demure Theater of the Clouds configuration) and Keller Auditorium (just under 3,000 and up for a renovation soon).

The mid to large venue void is frequently held as a major reason some nationally touring acts skip Portland. Though shows in Pioneer Square can accommodate over 3,000, the Oregon Zoo (whose amphitheater could accommodate 3,500) hasn't hosted any major concerts since before the pandemic. It's also worth considering that outdoor spaces serve at the mercy of weather and the increasing impacts of climate change.

AEG's involvement makes this venue-on-venue build-off interesting, but its partnership with Monqui sends a signal seemingly meant to soothe the locals. Monqui co-owner Mike Quinn said the idea of building a mid to large size venue for Portland audiences was something he and AEG's Don Strasburg had been working towards for nearly ten years. "We have a great site, excellent design, and most importantly a shared vision in making the audience and artist experience a truly great one," Quinn said.