Reversing the trend, a new music venue is opening up on the site of Chicago’s historic Morton Salt complex this summer.
The Salt Shed at 1357 N. Elston in Chicago has announced a series of outdoor events this summer, with the indoor complex to follow.
In 2015, Morton Salt announced it would cease packaging and warehousing at the site. A few years later, the company announced that the site (visible from the expressway) would be redeveloped into a “mixed-use, riverfront development designed to enhance and adaptively reuse the building’s exceptional characteristics and preserve Morton Salt’s legacy in Chicago.” A year ago, the Chicago City Council approved the $30 million redevelopment plan for the salt works to near Goose Island to be transformed into a riverfront music venue.
The events are probably not the type of thing our readers would focus on but the venue is the important factor here: after several years of unrelenting club and venue closures and relatively few new ones to take their place, a new centrally-located music venue is a welcome reversal of popular trends.
The Salt Shed’s outdoor schedule features Fleet Foxes, Lake Street Dive, Lord Huron, Mt. Joy, Jorja Smith and Jason Isbell. Tickets go on sale for the shows on Friday February 18 at saltshedchicago.com.
The “state of the art” indoor venue on the site will be opening in 2023.
