Ryan Dobbs (@rwdobbs.bsky.social)

crainschicago on Instagram: "The developers of the Salt Shed music venue along the North Branch of the Chicago River have lined up a deal to buy a five-acre sit…" The developers of the Salt Shed music venue along the North Branch of the Chicago River have lined up a deal to buy a five-acre site next to the property with a plan to create an outdoor venue that could hold as many as 15,000 people for concerts and street festivals.A venture led by Chicago-based Blue Star Properties is under contract to buy the vacant parcel at 1401 N. Magnolia Ave., Blue Star Principal Craig Golden confirmed. Golden's real estate company helped lead a massive redevelopment of the former Morton salt warehouse immediately south of the site into the Salt Shed, which has become a popular destination for concerts and other events since it opened in 2022.Now, Blue Star is laying the groundwork to go bigger. Leveraging the firm's 16" on Center hospitality-focused sister company and in partnership with Chicago developer R2, Golden said he is in early planning stages to expand the venue's live entertainment capacity to the Magnolia site, which runs along the river between Blackhawk and Le Moyne streets.The vision: Build an open-air venue that could accommodate not only larger concerts than the Salt Shed can handle with its roughly 5,500-person limit for outdoor shows, but potentially serve as a destination for neighborhood street festivals and annual music festivals that increasingly run into issues with logistics and costs.Read more at the link in our bio. https://www.instagram.com/p/DQCPJ-5Doq0/?igsh=MW4weTV0NzBjbGliOA==