Former Grass Valley tech building to transform into music, art, and culture hub
(FOX40.COM) — Nevada County is home to a few dedicated theaters, with the Nevada Theater, minutes away from the tech company Grass Valley, being the oldest theater west of the Mississippi.
Now, there are new plans to turn Grass Valley into a central destination for music and the arts.
The former tech company's owner tried to sell it during the COVID-19 pandemic, but no buyer was in sight, until InConcert Sierra purchased it at a bargain price of about $2.3 million.
The purchase kicked off the construction of Crown Point Venues, but it wasn't all seamless at first.
Within 36 hours of In-Concert Sierra purchasing the building, Mother Nature had other plans.
'We signed the papers on March 3, 2023, closing the deal, and sometime that weekend, within about 36 hours, right where we're standing, the roof of the building collapsed,' Artistic Director of In-Concert Sierra, Ken Hardin, said.
A powerful storm rolled in, dumping several feet of snow that the grass valley community hadn't seen in years, which caused sections of the building's roof to collapse.
'It wound up being just Mother Nature saying, let's get this project started, because we were going to raise the roof here anyway,' Hardin added.
Driven by resilience, Hardin and his team sprang into action, giving the building a fresh start that is projected to cost $20 million.
'InConcert Sierra is primarily a concert presenting organization. We don't build buildings. We don't operate buildings. So, we've had a huge learning curve,' Hardin said. 'We have a wonderful board of directors that's been very involved in shepherding the project.'
Crown Point Venues is set to house three venues all under one roof.
From a conference center with enough seating for at least 400 people.
'4,400 square feet, which will be available for galas, fundraisers, banquets, and also for corporate trainings, government meetings, any kind of public assembly that people want to have,' said Hardin. '…and that'll really be the economic driver of the building, that space will support the building economically.'
To a black box theater designed with flexible seating options to suit just about every type of performance.
'This wall surface doesn't touch this wall surface anywhere, so sound can't travel, vibration can't travel through, and sound can't right, so we don't bleed into another venue,' Hardin said.
And the crown jewel of them all, an acoustic concert hall.
'Basically, means that the performer performs without amplification, and the audience experience is that whatever they do on stage sounds the same anywhere in the room, anywhere you are in the room without amplification,' Hardin explained.
Hardin said the concert hall is aimed at attracting world-class talent.
'And personally, as a musician, this kind of space is exactly the kind of space that musicians dream of performing in, a beautiful acoustic, a large stage,' Hardin said. 'We could have easily 700 people in this room with performers on the stage, an orchestra, and an audience of 540.'
Roughly $15 million of the $20 million has already been raised, and they're working to raise the remaining amount with an anticipated opening in 2026.
Any music enthusiast looking to get involved can visit the project's website to sign up for their fundraising event, which includes a behind-the-scenes tour of their transformation.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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'The Senate has generally taken the position that individual school districts know their communities best and are better able to design, implement, and maintain their own policies.' Experts question that approach. Kane, the Harvard researcher, agrees with Attendance Works that state and local governments should do more. He suggests making absenteeism a public cause. 'Most mayors can't teach algebra one, but they could do a public information campaign,' he said. Indiana, he said, posts a regularly updated attendance dashboard on its education department website. The state's legislature also just passed a law requiring the Indiana Department of Education to study absenteeism, collect data on the reasons students are missing school and publish the information each year. Last year, Indiana's chronic absenteeism rate dropped to below 18%, its lowest mark since the pandemic, though still above the about 11% rate it had in 2019. Ivan's attendance record turned around after he was offered a place in Evans' noon-to-5.p.m. program and encouraged to consider the offerings at the local technical college. A welding class intrigued him. Soon missing so many school days stopped making sense. Ivan graduated from Evans in May 2024 and then enrolled in Valencia's welding technology program. He is slated to graduate from the college program at the end of this month. 'I needed to calm down,' he said. 'I was getting too old.' ------------
