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Old Morton Salt warehouse to reopen as concert venue this summer, tickets on sale this week

Brilliantly renamed, The Salt Shed (no, we’re not joking), will open this summer featuring outdoor concerts followed by a full indoor schedule for 2023 after renovations are complete.

Chicago Journal
Chicago Journal
2 min read
Old Morton Salt warehouse to reopen as concert venue this summer, tickets on sale this week
A rendering of the final development planned for the former Morton Salt Complex. | Photo: Chicago Department of Planning and Development

The people behind the entertainment plans for the old Morton Salt Complex know what they're doing. The company in charge, 16″ on Center, owns concert venues Empty Bottle in Ukrainian Village and Thalia Hall in Pilsen. They also own and operate Revival Food Hall in The National Building downtown, and popular restaurants such as Longman & Eagle in Logan Square and The Promontory in Hyde Park.

But the creative talent behind the crew may have just outdone themselves.



The Salt Shed, their newly renamed music venue they're opening in the Morton Salt complex, will open this summer featuring outdoor concerts followed by a full indoor schedule for 2023 after renovations by Blue Star Properties and R2 are complete.

That's right, they named it The Salt Shed. The Shed, for short.

Lesser beings would have tried to get cute with it. Lesser beings would have tried to pair some entirely subjective throwaway line they liked from the third revised printing of an obscure postmodern poet they were "reading" on Wikipedia while sitting in the biggest Starbucks in the world "conceptualizing" and trying to "distill the essence" of the old Morton Salt complex. Lesser beings would have then tried to sell that to you with a three minute video compilation about the history of salt in popular music with every close-up crystalline frame sparkling with lens flare and it would have finished with "brought to you by CHASE Bank" or "PFIZER" or "COMCAST + META formerly known as FACEBOOK."

But not whoever the beautiful, big-brained, creative genius that was in charge of this at 16″ on Center. It's a famous old salt warehouse. It's a Shed. The Salt Shed. And it will now be that forever.

You may think we're joking, but no. They nailed it. Knocked it out of the park. We love it.

And we're now excited to go see shows at their new venue for that one simple decision.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, February 18, at 10:00 a.m CST.

Check out the lineup below:

Good job to those involved.


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The firm does not plan to operate the bar or restaurant that’s planned in a brick former garage structure along the river, Golden said.

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