$130M price tag for proposed Irvine concert venue

14K Seat Venue Aims To Deliver by 2025

The city of Irvine is looking to create a permanent amphitheater envisioned as the Orange County equivalent of the Hollywood Bowl, with a price tag that could reach $130 million.

The city is moving forward with the Great Park board of directors and Live Nation Worldwide to replace the temporary FivePoint Amphitheater on a 25-acre site in the city’s Great Park after getting the green light from the council last week.

City filings indicate Irvine will front the majority of the project cost, with Beverly Hills-based Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) agreeing to pay $20 million toward construction and will operate the facility upon its estimated completion in 2025.

The agreement term runs through 2055, with two additional 10-year extension options.

The site is in the “Heart of the Park,” city filings note, north of the intersection of Great Park Boulevard and Skyhawk, near the new Wild Rivers waterpark, which opened in July.

The amphitheater is expected to have a 14,000-person capacity and will replace the temporary amphitheater that has been in place since 2017, which can accommodate 12,000 people and was built following the demolition of Irvine Meadows in 2016.

City Council Meeting

In April, the Great Park board and the Irvine City Council approved an exclusive negotiating agreement with Live Nation to build a permanent amphitheater. In July, the board and council approved the Great Park Framework Plan, which, among various other components, includes the permanent amphitheater.

In the months since, project leaders have been coming closer to finalizing plans for the project, with City Manager Oliver Chi presenting the design for the amphitheater during a council meeting last Tuesday.

Ticket Surcharges

The city of Irvine is responsible for the bulk of the facility’s construction, which will include 4,500 parking spaces, and Live Nation will maintain and program the facility, with at least 25 shows per year.

FivePoint Amphitheater will have 38 events in 2022.

Live Nation, which currently leases the temporary site from an affiliate of Five Point Holdings LLC, will pay annual fees to the city in the $4.5 million range upon completion of the new amphitheater. Those fees include $3.5 million in operating revenue per year, escalated at 3% annually, and half of a $5 maintenance surcharge included in each ticket, estimated to generate up to $1 million for the city per season.

The annual fees “represents an approximate 4% return on the city’s investment, and yields full repayment of the city’s capital contribution over the term of the [agreement],” city filings indicate.

Early design plans call for lawn seating with cabanas and various food and beverage concepts as well as retailers.

Construction of the facility is expected to support 880 jobs, according to an economic impact report by Beacon Economics. Operations expenditures are expected to reach $4.8 million per year. ■