A fast-growing live music venue developer is targeting Texas for its largest project yet, a $300 million, 20,000-capacity amphitheater, marking the latest in a series of proposed outdoor live music venues as Notes Live expands throughout the southern United States.
Colorado Springs-based Notes Live unveiled its first foray into the Lone Star State with the project, called Sunset Amphitheater, earmarked for a 46-acre tract just northeast of U.S. 75 and State Highway 121 in McKinney, Texas, a suburb about 30 miles north of downtown Dallas.
The announcement came as Notes Live is expected to file its S4 soon, ahead of its initial public offering, with even more projects already keyed up in music-friendly cities in the nation's Sun Belt, Notes Live founder and CEO JW Roth told CoStar News.
"This will be a $300 million project by the time we are done," Roth told CoStar News about the McKinney project that was initially announced as costing $220 million. "Right now, there's a lot of things we haven't finished with the design. We have $1.1 billion in projects underway in just the five we have laying out in front of us."
Notes Live has been busy growing its balance sheet to more than $300 million in the past year, Roth said. The company is backed by private equity firms, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. He said Notes Live uses no debt. This year, Roth said he plans to add another $350 million to the company's existing balance sheet.
Along with the newly announced Texas amphitheater, Notes Live is finishing its Colorado Springs venue with another planned venue in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, just outside of Tulsa, and one in Gainesville, Georgia. Two other projects are in the entitlement process in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and El Paso, Texas.
Roth also has two additional projects up his sleeve that he "can't talk about yet," although he did admit a fondness for Greenville, South Carolina. His goal: Expand to 10 U.S. markets in the next 36 to 48 months.
"We haven't found sites in all 10 markets, but we are darn near complete," he said, adding Notes Live wants to locate in cities in the southern United States with the ability to operate an outdoor concert venue throughout much of the year. Roth said he also wants to work with municipalities that are enthusiastic and put some skin — or economic incentives — into the project.
That was one reason why Notes Live decided to put its largest amphitheater yet in McKinney, he said. Notes Live is working in lockstep with the city, the McKinney Economic Development Corp. and the McKinney Community Development Corp. Roth confirmed there were incentives involved in the deal but said he was unable to disclose what was offered. The city did not immediately disclose the proposed economic incentives to CoStar News.
Mayor George Fuller said the new addition to McKinney will "bring even more life and energy" to an already thriving arts scene and set the city apart as an entertainment hub in North Texas.
Roth, founder of Roth Premium Foods, said the McKinney project is estimated to create upward of $3 billion of economic impact in its first decade of operations. The corporate executive who calls himself a "live music nut" has never played an instrument but, as a child, would climb the fences of venues to see a concert. Roth said he admired how stadiums worked with municipalities on public-private partnerships and felt he could do the same with live music venues.
Notes Live has been working with Maher Maso, the former mayor of Frisco, Texas, and a principal at Dallas-based Ryan LLC, on economic incentives from the city of McKinney. Maso has been credited with helping to bring the Dallas Cowboys' world headquarters and practice facility to Frisco during his time as mayor.
Notes Live also has former Dallas Cowboys player Chad Hennings on its board of directors. Hennings is also a partner and chief operating officer of Dallas-based Rubicon Representation. Hennings was instrumental in Notes Live landing in Dallas-Fort Worth, Roth said.
"What sports is to Frisco, we want entertainment to be to McKinney," Roth said. "We felt there was a real fit and that's what drove us to McKinney. At the end of the day, we spent a year working on this, and we have a binding letter of intent. We hope to put a shovel in the ground in late summer to early fall, and it will take 18 months to complete."
The venue is scheduled for completion at the end of 2025 with an official opening in 2026.
Outdoor Luxury
Texas isn't a state known for its temperate climate. It can get hot in the Lone Star State with temperatures climbing for months into the triple digits.
But Roth is not too concerned about the state's climbing temperatures, he said, with technology helping to cool visitors. Notes Live is using what's called HydroChill technology, or beads embedded into artificial turf that soak up cool water ahead of a concert and have the ability to keep the ground level a cool 70 degrees for upward of five hours, Roth said. The amphitheater is also designed with a flow system to keep temperatures within the venue capped at 80 degrees.
"We want to take our Colorado Springs venue and put it on steroids," Roth added. "We want this to be our most luxurious venue we've ever built. We want premium everything."
The venue is designed with expanded ride-share lanes for quicker drop-offs and pickups, he said, with an oversize number of restrooms for fans. The venue will also serve gourmet food. The Texas venue is expected to house about 250 fire pit suites, he said, which will be offered for sale, like a condo, for customers to acquire and own. According to its website, the company sells a fire pit suite in a 99-year lease with options to buy tickets within the suite after a one-time charge of $200,000 to execute the lease.
Notes Live worked with AEG at its Colorado Springs venue and Live Nation has been earmarked as its partner in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Roth said he doesn't yet know who the company will team up with in Texas.
The company wants to operate venues in a dozen markets by 2028. It plans to go public in the coming months under New York Stock Exchange ticker VENU.