Birchmere Cans Plans For Silver Spring, MD

ALEXANDRIA, VA (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Following five years of negotiations with Montgomery County, Maryland, Alexandria’s celebrate Birchmere Music Hall has cancelled it’s plans to open a sister venue in Silver Spring.

The Birchmere had been planning to open an $8 million, 800-seat venue that would have moved into a 10,000-square-foot former department store site in downtown Silver Spring, owned by Lee Development Group. Birchmere owners said in a statement that both government officials and the development company backed out of the agreement.

County officials told the Washington Business Journal that nothing had been signed.

“We did not have an agreement,” Montgomery County spokesman Patrick Lacefield told the paper. “We’ve been trying to come to one and sign a contract. We concluded that the issues that separated us did not seem to be moving in the right direction. We decided to place those negotiations on hold and explore alternatives.”

The paper is reporting that an unnamed stand-up nightclub is slated for the space instead, as part of an $80 million project that will include a 152-room hotel, a 183,000-square-foot office building and a 650-space parking garage.

“The Birchmere wishes to sincerely thank all of its many supporters for all of their hard work in the effort to bring the Birchmere to Silver Spring,” the statement from the owners read. “The Birchmere deeply shares in their disappointment.” –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers