Live Nation will open first Pittsburgh office — What does it mean?

Promowest for a time, and with two small children, they wanted to be closer to extended family. “I would like to take a vacation somewhere other than Akron,” he said with laugh.

He came here in January and now will get office space for 11 employees here.

What will this mean for Pittsburgh?

“My job is very Pittsburgh-centric,” he said. “We will succeed as long as we do well in Pittsburgh and increase our footprint. We’ve got a lot of good venues here. There’s a cross-section of shows that do well here.”

Mr. Engler, who still books concerts here, mostly in the Cultural District theaters, doesn’t think the Pittsburgh office will impact how the Live Nation corporate machine operates.

“I don’t think it matters,” he said. “I don’t think the environment is going to change. His instructions will be to buy the low-hanging ripe fruit.”

Live Nation, which merged with Ticketmaster in 2010, owns more than 196 venues in 11 countries and manages more than 500 artists. Among those signed to the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based company are Madonna, U2, Shakira, JAY-Z and Nickelback.

Locally, Live Nation owns the KeyBank Pavilion in Burgettstown and also does shows in the Cultural District theaters Downtown, Heinz Field on the North Shore, the PPG Paints Arena Uptown and the Petersen Events Center in Oakland. This year, for the first time, it has partnered with the Thrival Festival, which will be presented Sept. 29-30 at the Carrie Furnaces in Swissvale with headliner Wiz Khalifa.

“There were a lot of question marks from the Thrival team as we approached this partnership with Live Nation,” said Thrival Festival executive director Dan Law. “But their team and ours jelled almost instantly. And for Thrival to grow, a partnership like this is indispensable. Their team are all from the Rust Belt — not Los Angeles or New York — so they very much embrace what'sgoing on here in Pittsburgh.”