{"id":2035206,"date":"2025-09-19T19:27:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2035206"},"modified":"2025-09-19T19:27:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:27:48","slug":"studio-parks-midtown-venue-pivots-to-rentals-and-fewer-concerts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/studio-parks-midtown-venue-pivots-to-rentals-and-fewer-concerts\/","title":{"rendered":"Studio Park\u2019s Midtown venue pivots to rentals and fewer concerts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"content-container\" data-article=\"digital\" style=\"display:block\">\n                    <!-- content --><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt is a uniquely designed room,\u201d Loeks said. \u201cOur group events team has been hearing a clamoring for rental use of it for years.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The intimate venue features a stage and full bar, with catering available from first-floor restaurant One Twenty Three Tavern.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-rec td-a-rec-id-content_inline  tdi_2 td_block_template_8\">\n<style><![CDATA[.tdi_2.td-a-rec{text-align:center}.tdi_2.td-a-rec:not(.td-a-rec-no-translate){transform:translateZ(0)}.tdi_2 .td-element-style{z-index:-1}.tdi_2.td-a-rec-img{text-align:left}.tdi_2.td-a-rec-img img{margin:0 auto 0 0}.tdi_2 .td_spot_img_all img,.tdi_2 .td_spot_img_tl img,.tdi_2 .td_spot_img_tp img,.tdi_2 .td_spot_img_mob img{border-style:none}@media (max-width:767px){.tdi_2.td-a-rec-img{text-align:center}}]]><\/style>\n<p><!-- \/105554924\/cgr\/home -->\n<\/div>\n<p><b><i>Keep up with all things West Michigan business.<\/i><\/b><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cb.sailthru.com\/join\/7hq\/signup?hash=8bab137af60f924f97d12b0816853c87\"> <b><i>Sign up for our free newsletters today<\/i><\/b><\/a><b><i>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI certainly would not want to communicate a departure from music and comedy performances, because those are something that we love and we\u2019re passionate about and continue to do,\u201d Loeks said, adding that live music \u201cis a very, very difficult business model.\u201d The venue is changing its strategy \u201cin order to make it stabilized and to be viable.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Midtown will continue to offer \u201ca handful of (live) events every month that we\u2019re very excited about,\u201d Loeks said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Going forward, Studio Park will place more priority on securing room rentals versus booking live events for the space, Loeks said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe weight has shifted to giving a little bit of earlier access and prioritization for the rentals, but still booking concerts as they come along,\u201d Loeks said. \u201cWe\u2019ve learned a lot about what people are responsive to in the room, and we intend to continue to do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Midtown is part of the<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crainsgrandrapids.com\/news\/160m-studio-park-opens-downtown\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> $160 million<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> downtown Olsen Loeks Development\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the time of the opening, Midtown was branded as The Listening Room, but announced <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crainsgrandrapids.com\/news\/travel-tourism\/listening-room-gets-new-name\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a new name<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2022.<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crainsgrandrapids.com\/news\/travel-tourism\/listening-room-gets-new-name\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2024, the project expanded with the addition of <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crainsgrandrapids.com\/news\/real-estate\/developers-fulfill-vision-of-bringing-people-together-as-first-residents-move-into-studio-park-tower\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Studio Park Tower,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a $60 million, 16-story apartment building that tenants started moving into late last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s a room that is just absolutely magnificently designed for certain kinds of rentals,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cThere 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\u2019s really designed for it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>More from Crain\u2019s Grand Rapids Business:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crainsgrandrapids.com\/news\/retail\/detroit-jewelry-brand-hiring-women-in-need-opens-grand-rapids-store\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Detroit jewelry brand hiring women in need opens Grand Rapids store<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crainsgrandrapids.com\/news\/real-estate\/traverse-city-condo-sale-breaks-a-state-record-for-its-size\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Traverse City condo sale breaks a record before it\u2019s even finished<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crainsgrandrapids.com\/news\/real-estate\/developers-start-building-171-apartments-in-creston-after-2-years-of-planning\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Developers start building 171 apartments in Creston after 2 years of planning<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.crainsgrandrapids.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2035207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2035206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Studio-Parks-Midtown-venue-pivots-to-rentals-and-fewer-concerts.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2035206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2035207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2035206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2035206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2035206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}