This interview with 16OC c0-founder Bruce Finkelman is part of Hypebot’s In The Trenches series sponsored by venue, festival and promoter marketing solution Bandsintown PRO. The series features the unsung heroes who make live music happen.
How Chicago Venue Collective 16OC Thrives By Building Community
16” on Center (16OC) founders Bruce Finkelman and Craig Holden are working to keep the culture of Chicago alive by preserving and renovating spaces designed to become the coolest new hot spot.
The collective's diverse portfolio of restaurants, bars and music venues includes SPACE, The Empty Bottle, Thalia Hall, The Promontory and the Salt Shed which was built inside the former Morton Salt Factory on the Chicago River. They also produce community events and festivals.
Each restaurant, bar and venue within the collective is a stand alone business with 16OC providing support and services.
Finkelman describes 16OC's simple yet powerful operating philosophy over their last 33 years:
"building places we like with the hopes that others like them too."
The name 16” on Center comes from a construction term for the center mark that creates the strongest build. That's how they approach each project: "creating the highest quality places that are meant to last."
They work to build venues, bars and restaurants that draw people out of their homes, enabling them to be part of their neighborhoods.
In short, it's people that come together and make culture.
Community is also at the core of your mission. How is that manifested in your venues and the events you produce?
FINKELMAN: Our venues reside in the neighborhoods they serve. That is the cornerstone of any 16 on Center operations: it’s success depends on its neighbors.
You started in 1992 with the Empty Bottle and have grown in a competitive market real estate, live events and food. Now costs are rising as well. How has 16OC been able to not just survive but even thrive in this environment?
FINKELMAN: We thrive by continuously trying to understand our customers. By making them a factor in almost every business decision we make. That goes for understanding how costs and rising prices affect our people.
Does Live Nation and Ticketmaster impact your business?
FINKELMAN: Absolutely. Live Nation is a competitor, a partner, and a vendor. With so many different aspects to our relationship, its certainly makes for a complicated one.
You are involved in The Chicago Independent Venue League (CIVL) and NIVA. Do your peers in Chicago have similar struggles?
FINKELMAN: Every independent venues is facing the same struggles. Yes.
Does having a more diverse business with multiple income streams help insulate you from the ups and downs of presenting live events?
FINKELMAN: My partner Craig (Golden) calls it the “this and that” principle. Why have only one thing helping you survive when you could have many?
Some ARTISTS like Modest Mouse, Alabama Shakes and Gary Clark Jr. have stayed with 16OC as they’ve grown from The Empty Bottle to Thalia Hall to The Salt Shed. Is that kind of loyalty common or an exception?
FINKELMAN: We find it pretty common in our pipeline because the folks are family; people we have watched grow up throughout the years.
When we talk to venues and promoters, their top concern, after rising costs and competition, is finding and expanding their audience. At a time when algorithms get in the way, what tools and marketing strategies do you and your team use that actually increase attendance?
We follow our north star which is doing the things we like, hoping other like them too. Being honest with ourselves.
In The Trenches is sponsored by venue, festival and promoter marketing platform Bandsintown PRO. Join leading live event professionals saving time and selling more tickets with their automated, self-serve and custom solutions.