New renderings show new music venue to take over former Coney Island space

CINCINNATI — We’re getting a new look at renderings of an upcoming music venue that will be built where Coney Island was previously located.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and its subsidiary, Music & Event Management, Inc. (MEMI) released new visuals and details about the venue and what it will hold.

The venue will be called The Farmer Music Center, MEMI anounced Wednesday, and it will accommodate up to 20,000 concert-goers when it’s completed.

Like it’s counterpart next door, Riverbend, the new venue will feature a sloped, stadium-style seating structure to provide better sightlines and cleaner sound, according to the announcement.

There will be 8,000 reserved seats available, coupled with a synthetic lawn that will provide capacity for up to 12,000 people. The facility itself will feature more than 300,000 square feet of concourse and club space, with opportunities for guests to purchase drinks and food. MEMI said there will be 25 full-service bars and concession stands located across three different levels of the venue, plus multiple grab-and-go kiosks.

For music fans looking for a different experience, the facility will have four premium club spaces and two levels of box suites available.

“This is a meaningful step forward for the project and for the future of live music in Southwest Ohio,” said CSO President and CEO Robert McGrath in the press release. “These updates give the community its clearest view yet of what will be the most innovative venue design in the region, one built to put artists and audiences at the center of every performance, while strengthening our ongoing commitment to the region’s cultural and economic vitality.”

CSO and MEMI

CSO and MEMI said the new music venue is projected to generate more than $100 million annually in economic impact, while contributing an estimated $7 million in state tax revenue and $15 million in new city tax revenue over the next 10 years.

“A venue like this does more than bring great music to Cincinnati — it creates real momentum for the city,” said Mike Smith, CEO of MEMI, in the press release. “From hotel stays and restaurant traffic to seasonal jobs, the economic ripple effect reaches far beyond the gates.”

CSO and MEMI said the organizations plan to hold a press conference with more details about the project later on this year.

CSO and MEMI

The look of the new venue doesn’t appear to have changed much from 2023 renderings released by CSO and MEMI of the $118 million development. MEMI has said the aim of the new music venue is to be a “first-of-its-kind” in the Greater Cincinnati area, with “cutting-edge performance and entertainment technology” alongside “best-in-class amenities.”

The venue will stand where theme park Coney Island stood until it permanently closed at the end of 2023 — after more than 125 years of business.

Following the announcement of Coney Island’s closure, advocates who sought to save the park and its historic Sunlite Pool protested, signed petitions to save it and even offered to purchase the land from MEMI.

A look at the history of Coney Island and Sunlite Pool

Coney’s history started in 1886 with a dining hall and dancing hall built on an apple orchard. Over the years, different owners added rides, carnival games and a huge picnic grounds. Moonlight Gardens, which featured dancing and live bands, was a popular place for dates. In the 1960s, there were even water skiing shows on Lake Como and an acrobats show above the midway.

A steamboat ferried people to Coney Island from 1886 to 1947. Beginning in 1925, the Island Queen made five trips a day from the Public Landing Downtown to Coney and back. That ended on Labor Day 1947. A week later, the Island Queen blew up.

In 1925, Sunlite Pool opened and has since remained the world’s largest recirculating pool.

But the local historical significance of the Sunlite Pool, specifically, goes even deeper than inspiring other parks’ future designs.

It was also a battleground for civil rights.

Civil rights pioneer Marian Spencer, who died at the age of 99 in 2019, fought to integrate the Sunlite Pool in the 1950s. Her challenge to Coney Island began after her sons, Donald Jr. and Edward Alexander, heard an advertisement inviting local children to visit.

As she explained many times over the years, she called to ask if all children were welcome. At first, the young woman who answered said yes. After Spencer added, “We are Negroes,” the employee said the invitation didn’t extend to them.

A guard brandishing a gun banned Spencer and her children from the front gate on July 4, 1952.

One lawsuit eventually won African Americans the right to enter the park. It took a second lawsuit to grant them the right to swim there.

Spencer explained her outlook to WCPO in 2015 this way: “You’ve got to have spirit. You’ve got to be unafraid. Because how else can you venture?”