ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Perhaps Stan Levinstone's biggest compliment regarding plans for a new concert venue in downtown Allentown is this: "I'd love to be involved."
That's high praise from Levinstone, president of SLP Concerts, which is one of the top concert promoters in the Northeast and among the Top 100 in the world. It books shows at regional venues.
That's also Levinstone's answer to the question of whether the proposed Archer Music Hall, a 31,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art entertainment venue proposed for 935-939 Hamilton St., can be successful.
- The proposed Archer Music Hall would be a 31,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art entertainment venue in downtown Allentown
- Developer City Center Investment Corp. says it would present three or four shows by national touring acts a week in an 1,800-capacity standing-show format
- The Archer is expected to open in spring 2024
The Allentown Planning Commission last week approved plans for the venue, which developers City Center Investment Corp. say would accommodate up to 1,800 patrons for standing-room shows, and present three or four concerts by national acts every week.
The Archer is scheduled to open in spring 2024.
“It’s definitely viable," Levinstone said. And one of the biggest reason is that "Allentown was always a great market."
"Compared to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre or the Poconos, Allentown’s just more of a centralized market," he said. "It’s easy to get to from New Jersey, people coming out of Philly. It’s just an easy place to get to."
Allentown also hasn't had a large-club-sized music venue since the former Crocodile Rock Cafe closed in 2015.
Crocodile Rock, just two blocks away from where The Archer is proposed, opened in 1999 and had an official capacity of 1,100, or 1,300 when it opened garage doors along one wall onto a spillover patio.
It consistently drew top music acts such as Snoop Dogg, 30 Seconds to Mars, Wiz Kalifa, AWOLNATION and Twenty One Pilots, and had Taylor Swift and The Jonas Brothers while they were on their way up.
“Allentown’s a great market. I proved it for a number of years.”Promoter Stan Levinstone
In its heyday, Croc Rock sold 50,000 tickets a year, to routinely rank among the Top 100 busiest clubs its size in the world. It occasionally ranked in the Top 25.
Levinstone's SLP Concerts booked most of those shows.
“Allentown’s a great market," Levinstone said. "I proved it for a number of years.”
Another endorsement
Levinstone isn't the only industry insider to think The Archer's chances of success are good.
Jerry Deifer, who conceptualized and was a founding partner in Sands Bethlehem Event Center, now Wind Creek Event Center, was so convinced such a venue would succeed in downtown Allentown that — in 2017, with the same developer, City Center — he proposed one just two blocks away.
“I think it’s awesome," Deifer, now a venues consultant with Sightline Management Group, said of the proposed Archer Music Hall.
"I think that downtown market needs an amenity that offers significant traffic from outside the market that they’re currently pulling from. And I think that music and entertainment has always been that.
“It’s required. I don’t go anywhere that they don’t want mixed-use entertainment amenities. It’s a necessity, right? It bleeds the culture into the environment in the region, and that’s what it requires.
“That’s why we proposed it five years ago.”
"Archer Music Hall will be an iconic destination in Allentown. It will activate Downtown West and attract people to support the nearby businesses.”City Center Investment Corp.
The venue Deifer proposed then would have been a 1,400-capacity hall that held 200 to 250 events a year in the then-proposed $250 million Five City Center complex, which also would have included the Lehigh Valley’s tallest building — a 24-story tower at Eighth and Hamilton streets — 225 upscale apartments and more.
But City Center shelved that planned complex, and the music venue with it.
On its website, City Center echoes Deifer in regard to Archer Music Hall.
“We’ve been told by our residents, office tenants, and visitors that Downtown Allentown needs a music hall to host concerts and events that are too small for the PPL Center arena,” City Center Vice President of Sales and Marketing Jill Wheeler says on the site.
“Similar to The Fillmore in Philadelphia, Archer Music Hall will be an iconic destination in Allentown. It will activate Downtown West and attract people to support the nearby businesses.”
Still a sweet spot
Deifer said he still believes a 1,400- to 1,800-capacity venue is the sweet-spot size for a venue.
“I think that right now, it is an under-served capacity," Deifer said.
When Deifer proposed the earlier venue, he noted that, with the 10,000-capacity PPL Center, the 3,500-standing capacity Wind Creek Center and the 1,000-standing capacity Musikfest Cafe in Bethlehem, the Lehigh Valley would have a venue for every size music act.
“Every artist that wants to come and play in the city of Allentown, they’ll have a place to play,” Deifer said then.
Levinstone agreed. He said of the additional 800 tickets The Archer could sell above the capacity of Musikfest Cafe, "I mean, that's significant."
"They always say, ‘If you build a better mousetrap ... ’" he said. "If you put a nice venue up there, I’m sure it’s just going to increase the market."
Keys to success
With a capacity of 1,800 and 150 to 200 concerts, Archer Music Hall could sell 270,000 to 360,000 tickets a year.
Deifer said his plan used ticket-sales projections of 69% capacity — meaning Archer would sell 186,300 to 248,400 a year.
Those figures would make The Archer the third-busiest club-sized venue in the United States, behind only House of Blues-Boston and the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., which annually sell about 400,000 and 260,000, respectively, according to Pollstar magazine, which tracks industry sales.
But while Archer Music Hall would be poised for such success, it wouldn't be automatic, both Levinstone and Deifer said.
Music promoters have long said the Lehigh Valley’s location between Philadelphia and New York makes it an ideal stop for artists playing those larger markets. Officials have said “piggybacking” dates on shows in those cities has helped them get top acts.
Venue owners also say the pool of concert talent continues to grow as artists, no longer able to make as much money in record sales, look to concert tours as their primary source of income.
But whomever would program The Archer would have to have access to those top acts — and know what sells in this market, Levinstone and Deifer said.
“It’s just having knowledge of the market, you know? Knowing bands and knowing what to put up there," Levinstone said. “It depends who’s booking it, what they want to do with it.”
Deifer said that during the development of his project, "there were national promoters that already were engaged with us. So of course there’s interest there."
But to do the number of concerts The Archer is proposing requires a national promoter, Deifer said.
“That’s a lot of shows," he said. “They must have a national promoter." He said it appears the builders have "made their own economic decision — to make sure that’s a viable facility and investment.
“At the end of the day, it’s on the national programmers to feel like they have enough slotted shows to present there."Jerry Deifer, founding partner of Sands Bethlehem Event Center and concert venue consultant
“At the end of the day, it’s on the national programmers to feel like they have enough slotted shows to present there. Depending who their promoter is will give a good indication of how many nights they’ll be active.”
City Center says on its website that it "is currently in discussions with four leading national operators to manage Archer Music Hall and book three or four acts per week."
Wheeler declined to identify those operators.
Possible promoters
Live Nation and AEG, the world’s two largest concert promoters, now often buy entire tours and book them in their own venues, Levinstone said.
So either could route their tours through Allentown, he said.
Live Nation already has a significant presence in the Lehigh Valley — booking Wind Creek Event Center and PPL Center. It also books shows at The Fillmore Philadelphia, the venue to which City Center compares The Archer on its website.
AEG also buys tours, and through its The Bowery Presents arm books shows at similar-sized venues in Philadelphia: Franklin Music Hall (formerly The Electric Factory), Union Transfer, Underground Arts and The Xcite Center at Parx Casino.
The Bowery Presents also books some of the most successful similar-sized venues nationwide, such as Webster Hall and Terminal 5 in New York City, Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, N.J., and Ram's Head in Baltimore.
Like Crocodile Rock, The Archer would, in addition to it main room, have a smaller stage for intimate shows on its second floor, increasing its offerings and ticket sales even more.
"With advanced sound and lighting systems, commercial kitchen space, and a DJ booth, The Archer will also accommodate corporate events and galas," it says on the City Center website.
Deifer said he's happy to see the idea he had come to fruition.
“I’m actually thrilled to see the investment in music and entertainment in the market," he said. "It’s my hometown — I’ll never not love it and want to see it succeed.”
