The growth of mid-sized venues in NYC

Here's a bit of an overview of Bowery Presents, a promoter that has grown enough to take on Live Nation and AEG in NYC.

Bowery Presents - Concert Industry - Music - New York Times, 6/7/07: "It started with the 250-capacity Mercury Lounge on East Houston Street, which opened in 1994 for $250,000, some $35,000 of which came from the maxed-out credit cards of Michael Swier, one of the Bowery Presents partners. Four years later came the 575-capacity, $1 million Bowery Ballroom, and in 2004 the company began booking Webster Hall, which fits 1,400. Last year it acquired Northsix in Brooklyn, which will open in September as the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and the 3,000-capacity former Exit dance club on West 56th Street, to reopen as a rock hall in October."