Construction has begun on the Cleveland Riverfront Amphitheater, a planned 6,200-capacity music venue targeting an opening by summer 2028, according to Digital Music News.

Dan Gilbert’s Rock Entertainment confirmed the construction kickoff in a formal release. City officials and executives from the companies involved also took part in a groundbreaking ceremony, the outlet reported. The project brings Live Nation into a new concert venue on Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River waterfront.

The companies say the amphitheatre will present both “global touring acts and local artists.” Rock Entertainment describes it as “the first large music venue built in Cleveland in more than 20 years.” Those plans would add another waterfront destination for concerts in a city that already has a nearby amphitheatre serving touring performers.

The new venue will be a short drive from Jacobs Pavilion, which also sits along the Cuyahoga River and is operated by AEG Presents. Digital Music News reported that the Riverfront Amphitheater will add competition for that existing venue.

The amphitheatre is also intended to be a central element of Bedrock’s Riverfront Cleveland, a 35-acre mixed-use development. That broader project will be anchored by a Cleveland Cavaliers sports science and training facility, which is expected to open in February 2027, ahead of the concert venue’s planned debut.

Rock Entertainment puts the amphitheatre’s estimated annual economic impact at $59 million. That figure is a projection, rather than a measure of activity at an operating venue.

DLR Group is the amphitheatre’s lead designer, working in partnership with Live Nation’s Blueprint Studio. If the projected 2028 opening holds, the venue would begin operating before the Cleveland Browns’ anticipated stadium switch around 2029.

Sources