It looks like I.M.P., the Montgomery County-based company that runs the 9:30 Club and Merriweather Post Pavilion, hasn't given up on opening a Silver Spring music hall. In September, we wrote that concert producer and venue owner Live Nation had signed a non-binding letter of intent to put a Fillmore music hall in the old J.C. Penney store at Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road in Silver Spring, across from the AFI Silver Theater.

Both the Birchmere and I.M.P. had been interested in the location, according to the City Paper, but Live Nation, the Clear Channel spin-off that owns the House of Blues chain, the Nissan Pavilion and operates or books shows at the Warner Theater, DAR Constitution Hall, and the Verizon Center seemed to have won out.

However, the story doesn’t end there. On Tuesday we received a letter I.M.P. chairman Seth Hurwitz sent on Monday to Montgomery County Executive Isaiah Leggett, asking the county to consider his company for the location instead. In the letter, Hurwitz argues that I.M.P. would better serve the county, pay twice the rent, and require fewer government expenditures than Live Nation's venture, the aforementioned Fillmore music hall.

A day later, Leggett responded to Hurwitz saying “Montgomery County has negotiated a letter of intent with Live Nation and will not negotiate with other parties.” Leggett’s letter, which we first saw on the Silver Spring Penguin blog, continued that “[i]t would be inappropriate for the county to enter into an agreement with one operator only to subsequently decide to engage in simultaneous negotiations with a second proposed operator. This would be unacceptable.” The letter says that county Chief Administrative Officer Tim Firestine met with Hurwitz in October and told him as much.

According to their letter of intent, Live Nation would pay $7,500 a month rent to the county and the facility would cost about $10 million to build, with $8 million of that coming from Montgomery County and the State of Maryland. I.M.P. would pay $15,000 a month in rent and contribute more money to construction, reducing the government’s responsibility to $6 million. If it were allowed to buy the property outright, rather than rent it, the I.M.P. venue would require no government expenditures for construction.

The letter also states the I.M.P. venue, with a working name of the Silver Spring Music Hall, would split naming rights evenly with the county, unlike the Live Nation deal, which gives all naming rights to Live Nation. If I.M.P. bought the facility rather than leased it from the county, the company would own the naming rights. I.M.P.'s letter also says they'd give a higher purchase price than Live Nation and that the company has a better idea of what acts to book for the county.

Both companies would allow community groups to use their venues, something county officials have said was important to them, and I.M.P. says it would offer rent-free usage for non-profit groups. I.M.P.'s letter says Live Nation would not offer rent-free use for community groups, but that is unclear in other news articles about the deal.

Before we knew that Leggett responded, I.M.P. spokesperson Audrey Schaefer told us that Hurwitz had been interested in opening a venue in Silver Spring for years, and that in late September, two days before the Live Nation letter of intent came out, I.M.P. sent a letter to County Executive Leggett asking to be considered but was told it was too late. The September 25 Washington Post article about Live Nation’s letter of intent also quoted Leggett as saying Hurwitz's letter came "sort of at the last minute" and was too late, and that Hurwitz had held off sending that letter because he hoped the Birchmere would reach a deal with the county. According to the Post, the county approached Live Nation when the Birchmere talks began to break down.

Schaefer said "[a]ll I.M.P. is looking for is to have their proposal evaluated. It seems that it would be in the county and taxpayers' best interest to have at least two well-regarded organizations have an opportunity to be evaluated." She added that I.M.P. was “arguably one of the best in the nation” at operating and booking music venues. The 9:30 Club sold the most tickets in the nation last year.

The I.M.P. venue would have a smaller capacity than the Live Nation venue, 1,400 versus 2,000, but there are some who question the Fillmore's ability to actually achieve that capacity in the space they have planned. The Fillmore's footprint would be 10,800 square feet. A rough measurement using the District of Columbia's data shows the footprint of the 1,200 capacity 9:30 Club to be about 9,700 square feet.

The county and Live Nation must agree on plans for the club by December 31, 2007, and the county will try to start construction by January 31, 2009.