With a little more than a month to go until the unveiling of Portland’s newest music and entertainment venue, business is already booming.
Aura, as the new venue is called, is set to open in late April after an expansion and renovation that reportedly cost $9.1 million to double the capacity of the old Asylum nightclub to about 1,000 people.
Located downtown at 121 Center St., Aura’s getting lots of buzz as opening night approaches. It recently put on its first evening business mixer, for the Greater Portland Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“The CVB mixer was huge, we had about 90 people,” said Aura’s general manager Courtney Rague, who previously worked as director of promotions for the Portland Sea Dogs baseball team.
Through CVB, Aura hopes to lure both summer tourist and business groups organizing annual conferences, and Rague said she’s received bookings for other business and fundraising events.
“We want to work with everyone,” Rague told Mainebiz.
Vanessa Pike, the CVB’s membership director, said, “Aura’s expansion creates more needed meeting and entertainment space in Portland,” and that mixer attendees were “delighted” with Aura’s modern and sleek decor and its private function room that easily accommodated the large group.
“We look forward to referring Aura’s function space to destination event planners and the concert hall to visiting music attendees,” she added.
On the music side, 35 concerts have been announced from April to November, kicking off with Get the Led Out, a Led Zeppelin tribute band, on April 27. The roster spans several genres and eras, from Buddy Guy of Chicago blues fame to American rapper Lupe Fiasco.
Tickets are being sold via Ticketmaster online, and have in fact already sold out for at least one show: Robert Randolph and the Family Band, a Gospel-inspired American funk and soul band, on April 29.
Besides business events and musical acts, Aura is luring interest from future brides and grooms, with five inquiries so far. “I predict that 2018 is probably going to be busy in terms of booking weddings,” said Rague.
Aura was designed by WBRC Architects Engineers, the same firm that transformed the former Cumberland County Civic Arena into the Cross Insurance Arena. Consigli Construction Inc. is the general contractor.