Nashville Company Set to Open Music Venue in Rail Yard District
The latest piece of the Rail Yard District development puzzle has fallen into place, with a Nashville company committing to creating a music and event venue on the Dennis + Ives site. Marathon Live, which offers full-service venue management, will build and operate an as-yet-unnamed space for concerts, weddings, galas, parties, and other functions.
“We’re very excited to have this development with Dennis + Ives,” said Jeff Edwards, president of the Rail Yard District Business Council. “We think it will be a benefit to the Rail Yard District and will help kickstart future developments that bring visitors and investment to the District.”
Although the Rail Yard District branding was formally created in 2018, the area has a long history as the heart of Jacksonville’s transportation and industrial zone. Before the interstates covered large portions of the center of Jacksonville, dozens of rail lines flowed through the area, and many of the boarded-up warehouses in the District have loading docks that back up to old, now-overgrown rail lines. The District is bounded by I-10 to the south, I-95 to the east, Old Kings Road to the west, and Huron Street to the north.
The Rail Yard District seems tailor-made for Marathon Live’s unique approach to events. Their very first event space, called Marathon Music Works, is a repurposed auto manufacturing facility in Nashville that was originally built in the early twentieth century. Since 2011, the company has developed four more event venues, in Kansas City, Chattanooga, Birmingham, and Little Rock. Several of these venues have been adaptive re-uses of old industrial buildings, while others have involved new construction.
“This is a ground-up build for us,” said Jeremy Hicks, Ticketing and Branding Manager for Marathon Live. Hicks said that Marathon Live is very selective about where it chooses to expand, but that the owners “had their eye on Jacksonville for a long time.”
“We never try to go into a new market and compete with venues doing similar things,” Hicks said. “We try to go in and fill a gap. Jacksonville has a great music ecosystem of venues, and this will only strengthen that.”
Marathon Live handles all aspects of events it puts on, from ticketing to staffing to marketing. Its venues are considered mid-size, with capacity for standing-room-only crowds between 1,200 and 1,700. By contrast, Daily’s Place holds 5,500, the Florida Theater seats 1,900, and the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena holds 15,000.
In addition to traditional events like concerts and weddings, Marathon Live prides itself on creating memorable and unique experiences. Some events featured on their web site include a Silent Disco, in which all participants wear headphones to minimize disruption to the neighborhood, and a Balloon Fashion Show, where all the garments were made from balloons. Marathon Live venues have also hosted food events, like a Bacon and Bourbon Festival, and a showcase event for Triumph Motorcycles.
The event space at Dennis + Ives will complement existing Rail Yard District institutions like the Jacksonville Farmer’s Market, gritty-quirky shop Eco Relics, and several breweries.
The nameless music venue is included in Phase One of the Dennis + Ives development plan, which is estimated to be completed by the end of 2022. But it won’t be nameless for long. “We’re planning a Name the Venue Campaign,” Hicks said. “We’d like the city of Jacksonville to help us name this thing.”
By Windy Taylor
Resident Community News
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