How to Open a Music Venue or Event Venue in Brevard County: The Space Checklist
To open a music venue in Brevard County, start by knowing what you need from the space before you sign the lease.
At Reach Commercial Real Estate, we represent tenants. We help you find locations, compare costs, investigate property questions and negotiate the lease. Reach founder Cassandra Hartford has worked in Brevard County commercial real estate for 17 years and has closed more than 1,500 sales and leases.
This is our guide to leasing space for a music venue or event venue, from your first conversation with us through taking possession and preparing to open.
Quick answer: what you need to open a music venue in Brevard County
Zoning for your use. Melbourne's zoning code names neither live music nor live entertainment.
Conditional use approval in Melbourne if you serve alcohol as a bar or other drinking establishment that is not a restaurant.
An occupant load from 5, 7 or 15 net square feet per person without fixed seats.
Sprinklers in an A-2 fire area with 100 or more occupants.
An alcohol license from DBPR's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, which Melbourne lists for a bar or lounge.
Lease terms for the buildout. Ask for a permit contingency, a TI allowance and free rent during the buildout.
1. Bring us these details before we search
Before we send listings, we need to understand your operation. Will you host live bands, DJs, private events or all of them? Will you serve alcohol? How many people do you expect at your largest event?
We start with these details from you:
Your event types and how often you plan to hold them.
Your capacity goal.
Your equipment list.
Your food and beverage plans, including alcohol.
Your event hours and expected staffing.
Your preferred areas.
Your opening budget, your monthly occupancy budget and your target opening date.
What you will compromise on and what your business needs to function.
You do not need every detail settled. We need enough information to search for your business rather than send every available storefront.
2. Screen music venue spaces before you tour
We map headcount, parking, power and signage before you tour. A listing gives us a starting point, and we ask for the information needed to evaluate the property.
For each candidate, we request the asking rent, CAM or NNN estimates, previous use, known use restrictions, parking arrangements, existing equipment, proposed landlord work and the improvement allowance. CAM means common area maintenance.
If a critical answer is missing, we keep the property under investigation. We do not treat an unanswered question as an approval.
See How to Spot a Second Generation Space. See also How to Check Parking at Peak Hours Before You Sign. See also How to Read a LoopNet Listing for a Lease.
3. Tour for how a music venue runs
During a tour, we look beyond the finishes. Where will guests enter and wait? Where will employees receive supplies, store inventory and take out trash?
For promising spaces, bring your contractor and design professional into the review. We help gather property information. They evaluate the technical work and cost.
4. Check zoning and alcohol rules before signing a music venue lease
A landlord's willingness to lease to a music venue does not replace the local government's review.
A search of Melbourne's zoning code returns no hits for live music or live entertainment. If no listed use describes an activity, the code treats it as the listed use with the most similar characteristics, and the community development director decides whether it is permitted, permitted with conditions or conditional.
Melbourne requires a conditional use to sell or serve alcohol for consumption on premises at bars and other drinking establishments, unless they qualify as a restaurant (Appendix B, Art. VI, Sec. 2(Q)(1)). Council grants a conditional use by ordinance after a public hearing, and every owner of the land signs the application.
Planning and Zoning will check an address to help determine whether a business would be permitted there, according to Melbourne's Starting a New Business Toolkit. If additional approvals are necessary, we bring the expected process and timing into the lease discussion.
See How to Find Out If Your Business Is Allowed in a Melbourne Zoning District. See also How to Get a Zoning Confirmation Letter in Melbourne. See also How to Open in a Space That Used to Be Something Else: Change of Use in Brevard County.
5. Check occupant load, sprinklers, restrooms and parking
The Florida Building Code sorts assembly uses into groups (Florida Building Code, Building, Chapter 3).
Occupant load: Table 1004.5 counts 5 net square feet per person for standing space, 7 for chairs only and 15 for tables and chairs. A 1,050 net square foot room is 210 people standing and 70 with tables and chairs.
Sprinklers: Group A-2 covers assembly uses intended for food and drink consumption, including nightclubs and taverns and bars (section 303.3). An A-2 fire area needs sprinklers if it exceeds 5,000 square feet, has an occupant load of 100 or more, or is on a floor other than the level of exit discharge (section 903.2.1.2).
Restrooms: Table 403.1 sets nightclubs, bars, taverns and dance halls at one water closet per 40 for each sex and one lavatory per 75 (Florida Building Code, Plumbing).
Parking: Melbourne's Section 9.72 does not name a music venue. Places of assembly need one space for each two seats or one for each 60 square feet of main assembly hall, whichever is greater. For 100 seats in a 1,200 square foot hall, that's 50 spaces.
Ask your team to evaluate the systems the business depends on. Request records for existing equipment.
See How to Read a Certificate of Occupancy for a Commercial Space. See also How to Count the Parking Your Business Needs in Melbourne. See also How to Handle Parking for an Unlisted Use in Melbourne.
6. Know what your broker, architect, contractor and attorney each do
Reach handles the search, the cost comparison, the property questions and the business terms of the lease.
Your contractor and design professional evaluate the technical work and cost. In unincorporated Brevard County, the commercial permit application lists construction documents signed and sealed by a Florida registered architect or engineer. Your Florida commercial leasing attorney reviews the legal language and documents.
7. Compare the full cost of each music venue location
We compare more than base rent. Your occupancy review should include base rent, CAM and other charges, scheduled increases, utilities, repairs assigned to you, construction and equipment installation, deposits and rent due before opening.
The comparison should show what you pay to get open and what you pay to stay open.
See How to Read the CAM and NNN Section of a Lease. See also How to Work Out Your Real Monthly Occupancy Cost.
8. Negotiate the lease around your opening plan
Once you select a property, we negotiate the business terms. We focus on:
A permitted use clause.
Approval contingencies, including a permit contingency.
Landlord delivery and the tenant improvement allowance.
Rent commencement.
Maintenance, additional charges, the personal guaranty and exit terms.
An allowance, rent-free period or other concession only helps when the written terms fit your project.
See How to Ask for Free Rent While You Build Out. See also How to Ask for a Tenant Improvement Allowance. See also How to Add a Permit Contingency to Your Lease.
9. Keep lease dates aligned with the buildout
After signing, your contractor and design team manage plans, permits and construction. We stay focused on the lease dates: possession and delivery, landlord work, allowance submissions, construction deadlines and rent commencement.
Melbourne requires building permits for tenant buildouts. The city's Building Section says commercial permits typically average 14 to 21 working days on a single review.
10. Get your state alcohol license and business tax receipts
Melbourne's License Requirements for Businesses page lists an alcohol license from DBPR's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco for a bar or lounge.
DBPR's license flowchart lists zoning approval, proof of right of occupancy and a sketch of the premises among its application requirements, and says DBPR performs a site inspection of the premises.
Melbourne's business toolkit directs businesses to obtain the city business tax receipt followed by the Brevard County receipt. Your reviewing agencies confirm when you have satisfied their opening requirements.
Extra items to add to your music venue checklist
Equipment a former tenant left behind. Before assigning value to existing equipment, we ask who owns it, what records exist and whether your team finds it suitable for your operation.
The starting condition. We compare different starting conditions, such as a former bar, another retail space or an unfinished space. Each needs its own cost and construction review.
Change of occupancy. A change of occupancy cannot be made to any structure without the approval of the code official (Existing Building section 1001.2).
Off-site parking. Outside Melbourne's CB-OZ overlay, no more than 50 percent of required parking can be off-site, within 500 feet, under a recorded binding lot agreement (Section 9.75).
Insurance and schedule changes. Keep track of insurance requirements with your possession dates and rent commencement. If the project schedule changes, raise the lease implications early, and review the documents with your attorney rather than assume a delay changes your payment obligations.
County paperwork. In unincorporated Brevard County, a Notice of Commencement is required if job value exceeds $5,000, and impact fees are due before pre-power or final inspection.
Start your search with Reach
You do not need to find the property before calling us. In most deals the landlord pays our fee.
Call 321-514-0876 with your event plans, capacity goal, budget, preferred area and target opening date, or with the address of a space you have found.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do you have to appeal the city engineer's parking decision in Melbourne?
Where a use isn't listed in Section 9.72, the city engineer determines the required parking. Appeals go in writing to the board of adjustment and have to be filed within 30 days of the date of the city engineer's decision (Sec. 9.73(b)(1) and (c)).
How close to a school or church can a music venue serve alcohol?
In Melbourne, a bar or other drinking establishment that is not a restaurant cannot sell or serve alcohol for consumption on premises within 450 feet of an existing house of worship, an existing school or another such establishment. Properties in the city's Community Redevelopment Districts are exempt (Appendix B, Art. VI, Sec. 2(Q)(2)). Florida adds a 500-foot rule for schools unless the county or city approves the location (section 562.45(2)(a), Florida Statutes).
Can a city or county regulate the entertainment in a venue that serves alcohol?
Florida law says the Beverage Law does not affect the power of a county or incorporated municipality to enact ordinances regulating the type of entertainment and conduct permitted in an establishment licensed to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises (s. 562.45(2)(b), Florida Statutes).
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Written by Cassandra Hartford, founder and CEO of Reach Commercial Real Estate. She has worked in Brevard County commercial real estate for 17 years, representing buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants across Florida's Space Coast.
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