Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett has opened Pacific Electric, a 750-capacity music venue in downtown Los Angeles, despite the financial and regulatory difficulties facing new live-music spaces. He hopes the venue will help strengthen an area near Chinatown and the Los Angeles River that is still recovering from the pandemic, while recognising that cultural development can also reshape or displace communities.

Lovett’s company, TVG Hospitality, has spent a decade developing venues across the United States, and he argues that such spaces can anchor neighbourhood life and attract related businesses. The article places Pacific Electric within a tougher national context: smaller venues are closing, living costs are rising and live-event income is concentrated among stadium-level acts. It also cites Another Planet Entertainment’s $41 million restoration of San Francisco’s Castro Theatre, illustrating the scale and risk involved in preserving mid-sized venues.