A new look and new name for a landmark Park City music venue

For Vaughn Carrick, revitalizing a music venue on Park City’s historic Main Street is something of a personal mission.

“That’s really where I got my start,” said Carrick, founder of the Salt Lake City entertainment company LNE Presents, “back when I was just doing street-team stuff in the music industry. It’s always been kind of something that’s been on my target list.”

That venue at 427 Main now has a new name, The Marquis Park City.

The Marquis will have its grand opening over New Year’s Eve Weekend: The rapper Nas on Dec. 28, rapper Louis The Child on Dec. 29, a DJ set from Paul Oakenfold — who will be a resident DJ at the venue — on Dec. 30, and DJ Spider on Dec. 31.

Like most buildings on Park City’s Main Street, The Marquis has history. Reporting from KPCW’s Leslie Thatcher noted that the building — called the War Veterans Memorial Building when it opened in 1940 — once served as the station’s first broadcast studio, a recreation center and, at one point, city offices.

More recently, it has been a music venue under several names: Z Place, Harry O’s and, until last year, Park City Live.

Carrick said going back to the building has been a nostalgic experience — recalling memories of good shows he saw there from such names as Metallica, Maroon 5 and Snoop Dogg.

Thatcher reported that Kenny Griswold, a former actor and former co-owner of the ParkWest ski resort (now known as Canyons), owns the building, and has invested $10 million toward renovation.

The building is being renovated from “top to bottom,” Carrick said. “There used to be four to five bathrooms in the whole space, and now there’s, I think, 12 to 14 each for men and women. [And we’ve] expanded the [club’s] capacity from 800 to 1,200.”

The crown jewel of the renovations, for the venue and music lovers alike, is a new L’Acoustic K3 sound system — personally designed by Dave Rat, founder of Rat Sound Systems, who has done live sound engineering for such artists as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana.

“A lot of people kind of consider him like the scientist of sound,” Carrick said of Rat, adding that it was impressive to watch Rat enter the room and design the system based on that room’s specific details.

Besides The Marquis, Carrick and LNE opened Granary Live, a 7,500-capacity outdoor festival venue created this summer from a parking lot near downtown Salt Lake City.

When it comes to getting people up to Park City to come see the artists they’ll book, Carrick said, LNE will rely on the “pure nature of the talent that we plan to program in the space.”

“Traditionally the venue, for the most part, has been known as more of a DJ-type nightclub. We are changing that,” Carrick said. “We’re really looking to put larger acts that normally wouldn’t play in a smaller, more intimate venue.”

Under its old names, the mid-sized venue has hosted such artists as Pitbull, Kid Cudi, The Chainsmokers, Post Malone, Stevie Nicks and One Republic, among others.

Carrick said The Marquis would try to book local singer-songwriters, who often perform in Main Street’s bars, as supporting acts “as much as we can.” He also said he didn’t expect noise complaints from the venue’s Park City neighbors. “The venues operated for years without any issues like that, so I don’t see it changing,” he said.

Tickets for The Marquis’ lineup are available at tixr.com.