SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In a ceremonial project update for Sacramento’s medium-sized entertainment venue, a final structural beam will be installed by crane Wednesday — and it’s purple.
The beam, reminiscent of the Sacramento Kings’ victory beacon, will be signed by project stakeholders and installed around 2:30 p.m. at the “Channel 24” entertainment building under construction at 24th and R streets.
Local dignitaries and elected officials will also attend.
Formerly an industrial warehouse, the structure will feature a main music room with general admission floor viewing, reserved seating in a tiered balcony, multiple bars with food options, a VIP area and an upstairs open-air patio with views of Midtown Sacramento once it's completed, event organizers said.
It is set to open in January 2025 and will be built with a seating capacity of 2,150 people.
A medium-sized venue
Allen Scott is the president of concerts and festivals at Another Planet Entertainment (APE), a project proponent.
APE is the group behind the Fox Theater in Oakland and the Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena. For years, Scott said APE has been looking to open a medium-sized concert venue in the Sacramento area.
“We’ve been looking for a venue of this size for over 10 years,” Scott said in March. “There’s a sweet spot of 2,000 to 2,200 tickets, and artists were skipping Sacramento.”
Scott said artists often skip Sacramento to play at venues in the Bay Area and Reno because of the lack of seating.
In Sacramento, Ace of Spades on R Street seats around 1,000 people. The Memorial Auditorium on J Street seats about 5,000 people, and Golden 1 Center seats just under 15,000 for concerts.
“Just in the Bay Area, there are about 300 concerts that come through to play, so even if we do a third of those, that’s 100 concerts a year,” Scott said.
James Allison is an associate director with the Midtown Association, an organization emphasizing the neighborhood’s growth and preservation. He said Channel 24 is located in an area being primed for expansion.
“In midtown alone, over 55% of our sales tax is generated through our social economy, providing both important revenue for the city and…employment opportunities for folks, so we are thrilled to welcome Channel 24,” Allison said.
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