Studio Park is changing up its strategy behind Midtown, the intimate downtown Grand Rapids music venue that will now be marketed for event rentals in addition to shows.
The 200-person venue on the second floor of Studio Park at 123 Ionia Ave. SW regularly hosts comedy shows and live music. In the future, the venue wants live performances to make up half of its use, said Emily Loeks, director of community affairs for Studio C, the parent company of Celebration Cinema.
“It is a uniquely designed room,” Loeks said. “Our group events team has been hearing a clamoring for rental use of it for years.”
The intimate venue features a stage and full bar, with catering available from first-floor restaurant One Twenty Three Tavern.
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“I certainly would not want to communicate a departure from music and comedy performances, because those are something that we love and we’re passionate about and continue to do,” Loeks said, adding that live music “is a very, very difficult business model.” The venue is changing its strategy “in order to make it stabilized and to be viable.”
Midtown will continue to offer “a handful of (live) events every month that we’re very excited about,” Loeks said.
Although Midtown has been available for event rentals since it opened five years ago, Studio Park has marketed the venue primarily as a performance space, with concert lineups that have included The Verve Pipe, Jake Droppers and Martha Wainwright. Upcoming shows at Midtown include Michigander and River City Improv.
Going forward, Studio Park will place more priority on securing room rentals versus booking live events for the space, Loeks said.
“The weight has shifted to giving a little bit of earlier access and prioritization for the rentals, but still booking concerts as they come along,” Loeks said. “We’ve learned a lot about what people are responsive to in the room, and we intend to continue to do that.”
Midtown is part of the $160 million downtown Olsen Loeks Development’s Studio Park project that opened in 2019. In addition to the music venue, Studio Park includes 106 luxury apartments and condos, a nine-screen movie theater, a suite of retail tenants and One Twenty Three Tavern.
At the time of the opening, Midtown was branded as The Listening Room, but announced a new name in 2022.
In 2024, the project expanded with the addition of Studio Park Tower, a $60 million, 16-story apartment building that tenants started moving into late last year.
Loeks expects Midtown will cast a wide net with the event business, ranging from public presentations and corporate gatherings to holiday and birthday parties looking to use the space.
“It’s a room that is just absolutely magnificently designed for certain kinds of rentals,” she said. “There are a number of venues in the city where you can have rounds of dining tables and all of that, but I would say that the special capacity that room has is that mix of dining and then the capacity for presentation in a venue that’s really designed for it.”
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