SAN FRANCSICO (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Live Nation is moving its San Francisco operation to new digs on Potrero Hill on Monday, leaving behind the offices that served as a home for Bill Graham Presents since 1985, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Clear Channel acquired Bill Graham Presents from SFX in 2000 and it was included when Live Nation spun off from Clear Channel in 2005. SFX had acquired the company from several former Bill Graham Presents execs who took over the firm after Bill Graham died in a helicopter accident in 1991.
Live Nation currently runs its regional operations from the offices and employs more than 40 people there. Although the promoter sold the building in 2006, they have stayed on as tenants until their new, 23,000-square-foot offices at the corner of Rhode Island and 16th streets was completed.
Graham had relocated to the current location at 11th & Howard in 1985, after his former office was firebombed in the wake of Graham's criticism of Ronald Reagan's visit to a German military cemetery. Although no arrests were ever made in connection to the Arson, Graham, a Holocaust survivor, had suspected that anti-Semitism was behind the incident.
"For those of us who came to work here later, this building has always represented Bill Graham Presents to us," Live Nation Vice President Creighton Burke told the Chronicle. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
