Why is the Fillmore Miami Beach theater closing for a year? It’s the changes next door

One of South Florida’s top concert theaters is shutting down for a year as construction begins next door on a convention center hotel.

Work will start this summer on an 800-room Grand Hyatt Miami Beach Convention Center Hotel — and that means rock and pop music fans who flock to The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater will be without the familiar hot spot.

The Fillmore closes its doors on June 1 for about a year. The venue will reopen once construction is complete on the adjacent Grand Hyatt, which was designed by Arquitectonica architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia. The hotel is being developed by David Martin of Terra Group and Jackie Soffer of Turnberry Associates.

At a recent Miami Beach Commission meeting, it was noted that the lavish 17-story project will create an estimated 1,909 on-site construction jobs, 724 full-time jobs and 225 indirect jobs.

“The road to this point was long but worth it. We’re thrilled to get shovels in the ground on the new Grand Hyatt as the Miami Beach Convention Center solidifies its position as the venue of choice for major events and conferences,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said in a statement.

The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater is a part of those plans. But all that construction rocking and rolling nearby is going to be too much for the rock and roll likes of The Flaming Lips and Mother Mother, who still have dates booked by Live Nation, which presents shows at the venue.

Some of the construction involves renovations to the loading dock and back-of-house spaces at the Fillmore. That’s where bands load in their heavy and large equipment.

Without that access, the venue can’t host the bands’ performances.

The venue also won’t be hosting smaller community events that could theoretically come in through the front because of the construction, Miami Beach spokeswoman Melissa Berthier said.

Representatives from Live Nation did not respond to a query from the Miami Herald about the handful of shows it still has booked at the venue. Those bookings include Enanitos Verdes for two nights in August and Denzel Curry on June 22.

But local publicist Woody Graber, who has promoted concerts at the venue and elsewhere, said he was told the shows are in the process of either being moved or canceled. Ticket holders will be informed.

For decades, from the 1960s through the mid-2000s, the theater has had a variety of roles.

At the beginning, when it was known as the Miami Beach Auditorium, it was home to TV’s “The Jackie Gleason Show.”

In the mid-70s, it was renovated and renamed the Theater of the Performing Arts, later added Gleason’s name to honor the star after his death, and staged touring Broadway shows like “A Chorus Line” and concerts such as the Pet Shop Boys, Tracy Chapman and Elvis Costello.

Then it was rebuilt and rebranded again with the Fillmore name, debuting with a Ricky Martin concert in 2007.

Since then, The Fillmore has since hosted residencies from Madonna and New Order, single-date concerts by name acts like Mark Knopfler and Bryan Adams, and would have hosted hot Italian rockers Måneskin had they not already moved its Dec. 9 show from the smaller Fillmore to the larger Seminole Hard Rock Live near Hollywood.

That’s not because the rising rockers had a premonition of the pending closure but rather the South Beach date sold out so fast the group needed to play in a larger venue.

In addition to The Fillmore, the coming Grand Hyatt property will include 12 floors of guest rooms and 52 suites, four floors of meeting spaces and ballrooms that will complement the Convention Center, along with a signature restaurant, a lobby lounge and bar, retail space and an elevated skybridge.