Chicago business says it can't coexist with 'Salt Shed' due to noise

CHICAGO - The Salt Shed, the new music venue at the old Morton Salt facility along the Elston Industrial Corridor, kicked off its inaugural summer concert series this past month to the delight of outdoor music lovers. 

But — there is a nearby production house with a very rich Chicago history located right across the river that said the noise level is threatening its entire business model.

"We built here because it's the perfect area," said Jules Tomko, President of Essanay Studio & Lighting, which has been in Goose Island for 26 years and houses two soundstages for roughly 70 commercial recordings per year.  "We've never had a problem with any of our neighbors the whole 26 years, until this."

Since the Salt Shed started hosting outdoor concerts — 200 feet away across the river — leaders at Essanay noticed a major problem.

"We discovered that we have sound leakage all over our building," said Jim Shearer. "Literally you walk into someone in the parking lot during soundcheck and you cannot hold a conversation this far away from somebody."

Bruce Finkelman, who leads the hospitality group which operates the Salt Shed (16" on Center) said, "We’ve tried to work with [Essanay] as much as possible. We send around notes to the neighborhood before the shows, telling them what time sets are happening and sound checks. And we do try to make sure that everybody on the site is doing everything that they need to do to help us continue to be good neighbors." 

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But Essanay said 'prior notice' from the venue isn't good enough to guarantee its clients a professional experience, and it would need more than $2.5 million in upgrades to soundproof its building.

"We're getting zero help from anybody," said Tomko.  "The city has done nothing for us. The Alderman has done nothing for us. Nobody seems to be interested in saying, 'what about them?'"

Essanay tells FOX 32 it has a "cordial and civil" relationship with the Salt Shed, but it has hired an attorney to explore the legality of what it calls "sound pollution."