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Feb 06, 04
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Mark Naf's new venue: Premier
Original URL: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...premier23.html
 The Premier: New SoDo concert venue set to rock By Pamela Sitt Seattle Times staff reporter In a converted old warehouse one block south of Safeco Field — opening this weekend as Seattle's newest concert venue and bar — last-minute details have reached a feverish pitch. Mark Naficy's cellphone rings constantly: "Hey, do we have salt and pepper shakers?" he calls out to a bartender, phone to his ear. Yes, but no napkins. In the days before opening The Premier, a club marked by a retro-looking purple-and-yellow sign at the corner of First Avenue South and Massachusetts, Naficy is feeling a bit overwhelmed. In the span of an hour, he is up and down from a table in the expansive bar-and-restaurant area half a dozen times. The glass doors need wiping. The electrician is here. His wife and mother arrive to sample the menu. Can he turn the heat on? His father wants to know if there will be a cigar bar. "A little railing here, a little curtains there," Naficy said earlier this week. "There's a million things to do. I'm just trying to keep my head together." If Naficy is feeling a bit like Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day," it's because he has been living a version of this day every day for the past four months. Sixteen-hour days, seven days a week, holidays be damned. His wife, Kristina, says she's barely seen him. Such are the demands of opening a new nightspot, specifically The Premier — something of a lifelong dream for Naficy, who started messing around with sound systems in the late 1970s and later toured with rock bands. "In those days, you rented (sound systems) for a six-pack of beer and a way to get into the party," said Naficy, 41. "It just grew from there. I kept buying more and more audio gear, and then eventually lighting and video stuff." On the road with Jeff Buckley, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, he noticed little things that could be improved at various venues: not having to load equipment through narrow hallways or small elevators, eliminating poor access to dressing rooms or production offices, providing more exits or bigger stages. "I definitely had a vision of a place that would address a lot of the shortcomings of other places I've seen," Naficy said. "When I saw this place, I pretty much fell in love with the room and decided to go for it." What captured the first-time club owner about this 23,000-square-foot space is the clear view of the stage from anywhere in the room — no pillars or columns. The tons of parking for events at nearby Safeco Field and Seahawks Stadium didn't hurt, either. With Naficy's background in the music industry, these details are important. "We're pretty much filling a void in this town. There are a lot of places smaller and a lot of places larger," said Naficy, who compares The Premier to House of Blues or The Showbox, only bigger. The Premier will be able to hold more than 1,500 in its bar and concert hall combined. A lesson in progress Naficy is learning as he goes. He has three business partners and plenty of connections to booking agents and bands. He had a vision of the space, then brought in professionals — architects Ivary & Associates — to create it. Interior brick. Exposed wood beams and silver piping. High ceilings. Multipaned windows. Mood lights. Naficy likes that he retained the industrial feel of the SoDo neighborhood. "I never had any trouble knowing what I wanted the room to look like and all that stuff," he said. "A lot of the rest, the kitchen and bar and permitting, was new and took a lot of time and work. It's definitely been a learning process for me." Jeff Steichen, owner of The Showbox in Seattle, toured the work-in-progress a couple of months ago. "It was shaping up to be a very nice-looking venue," he said. "Certainly, design and aesthetics have something to do with (the success of) any music venue." But, of course, that's not all it takes. "A music venue has a lot of moving parts, everything from booking to alcohol sales to advertising and marketing," Steichen said, "all the way down to how you can fix a toilet 20 minutes before show time." As Naficy prepares for The Premier's first major event — with a local deejay and $10 cover charge — tomorrow night, he is putting finishing touches on the menu, training his new staff of 40 and, yes, checking the toilets. An official grand opening of The Premier is set for Feb. 7 (by USC Events featuring a first Seattle appearance by OLIVER LIEB, with ARMIN VAN BUUREN on Feb. 20); the venue's first big name, rapper Method Man, has been confirmed for March 5. What lies ahead? For now, the bar and restaurant are open, and events are trickling in as The Premier tests the waters. "Three months from now, we'll have five shows a week, and we'll be rockin,' " Naficy said. The Premier is the first of what Naficy hopes will become a nationwide chain of venues from the corporation he formed with his business partners, Concert Event Centers. The Premier is available for private parties and corporate events as well as live shows and deejays. Naficy hopes to draw sports crowds during baseball and football seasons as well. But first, there is tomorrow night. "In a perfect world, we would welcome hundreds of venues and hope that they're all profitable," said The Showbox's Steichen. "In the practical world, that's not always the case. But we do wish them luck." Last edited by Euro; Feb 06, 04 at 08:11 AM. 
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Feb 06, 04
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I wish this sort of thing would happen in Vancouver!
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