Orange Peel expanding to former Cursus Kĕmē brewery site
The Orange Peel’s new owners plan to revive 155 Thompson St., the former Cursus Kĕmē brewery site, with a sustainable, flood-conscious music venue.
ASHEVILLE – The Orange Peel has new owners and new plans to bring more musical acts to Asheville.
Long run by Public Interest Projects, Inc., the Orange Peel was sold to Big Picture Concert Group LLC in September, Big Picture’s co-owner and spokesperson Liz Tallent told the Citizen Times Oct. 14. The new company is run by seven long-time managers of the Orange Peel. Opened downtown in 2002, the music venue has been known for attracting major artists to Asheville, including a nine-show run by the Smashing Pumpkins in 2007.
“The Orange Peel has been proud to be an anchor of the live music community in Asheville for almost 25 years, to have built a national reputation for our brand, and especially proud to have played a part in putting our city on the map as a premier destination for live music,” Tallent said in an emailed statement to the Citizen Times Oct. 14. Already, the new company has submitted plans with the city of Asheville to develop a new outdoor music venue.
Documents released on the city of Asheville development portal Oct. 10 indicate the venue would be located at 155 Thompson St., the former location of the brewery Brouwerïj Cursus Kĕmē. The building at the location was destroyed by Tropical Storm Helene and Tallent said the company is seeking to reactivate the property “in a sustainable and flood-conscious way.”
The application indicates the concert venue would maintain a large open space and use multiple low-value shipping containers for merchandise, beer and box office sales. The property would also have a designated area for food trucks, according to site plans. The project is seeking a Level I permit review, meaning it will be reviewed by city staff for compliance but will not have to be approved by City Council.
Since Helene’s record-high rainfall and flooding, local businesses and artists have encouraged climate resilience in redevelopment, emphasizing increased open space, lifted buildings and evacuation plans. Some redevelopment plans in the nearby River Arts District have suggested building a new music venue.
“We intend to thoughtfully and carefully activate the site for flexible outdoor use, which we believe is the right approach for any sustainable redevelopment in an area that suffered so much in Helene and remains vulnerable,” Tallent said.
“Our hope is that this space will help to re-energize Asheville’s economy, create new jobs, foster growth opportunities for our long-term team members, attract show-goers and event attendees to neighboring hard-hit restaurants.”
The proposal for the riverside venue comes after The Orange Peel lost its outdoor music venue in 2024, an event that has generated a legal dispute with its former business partner.
The Orange Peel and Asheville Pizza & Brewing had been co-partners in running the outdoor music venue Rabbit Rabbit, until the companies fell out in a business dispute. Rabbit Rabbit was rebranded as Asheville Yards, a singular project located on South Slope under Asheville Pizza & Brewing’s parent company, Ninja Brewing, Inc.
In January, the Orange Peel’s then-parent company, Public Interest Projects, filed a lawsuit against Asheville Pizza & Brewing’s parent company, Ninja Brewing Inc., claiming the company misreported its finances and pushed Public Interest Projects and the Orange Peel out of the partnership before rebranding the venue against its wishes.
“Despite the extreme difficulty of 2024 from the challenges that Helene brought, and those we faced as a small business, our team has stuck together,” Tallent wrote to the Citizen Times, stating the team made the “the deliberate choice to keep our local staff together, even after the unexpected loss of our outdoor concert business at the end of last year.”
Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at [email protected]. Consider supporting this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
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