Mumford and Sons’ Ben Lovett has been curating experiences since his sixth birthday party. While other kids his age were doling out loot bags stuffed with Bazooka bubble gum and slap bracelets, Lovett was recording his favorite music on cassette tapes as party favors. “I’ve always wanted to guide people through some sort of an experience that I can make sure is optimal, fun, and meaningful,” he says.
While Lovett, 39, is best known as a keyboardist and songwriter in the U.K. band, he’s also been showing people a good time in other ways for the last decade — specifically, by building and opening music venues across the United States with his company, TVG Hospitality.
In March, he opened the doors to Pacific Electric, a 750-capacity venue in downtown Los Angeles. The building garnered buzz across town, particularly for breaking ground in an area that is still recovering from the effects of Covid-19. And while Lovett isn’t the first intrepid businessperson to venture to this commercial space, which borders Chinatown and the L.A. River, he is hopeful that Pacific Electric will evolve with the community, serving both locals and newcomers for years to come.
As we chat on a Zoom call, he’s on his way to the airport to catch a flight to Atlanta. We talk about what makes a neighborhood change, and how venues can help anchor a community’s culture.
“There’s not that many [music venues] if you really break it down,” Lovett says. “Often cities are made up of a handful of these spaces that define them. Behind each one of those there was a person or group of people with a dream and a vision. Then bars, restaurants, retail stores, record stores, and thrift stores pop up, and then people choose to live nearby.”
This brings him to a larger point: “I think we often lose track of how simple we are as human beings. Weirdly, to get to that simple truth, you need to work through a bunch of complications to then make things simple.”
That’s a challenge facing many who look to unveil new and restored music venues across the country. It might be a simple idea, but the details — the city permits, the construction, the opening, and then the unknown of whether this new space will revitalize, strengthen, or displace the community — are always much more complex. It’s an especially difficult task today, as the live music industry struggles in an era where rising costs of basic necessities such as housing, healthcare, gas prices, and groceries have created an affordability crisis.
Nightclubs and smaller concert venues continue to close across the country, while most of the revenue for live events goes to major artists on arena and stadium tours. To some, renovating and reopening a midsize concert hall in 2026 is a perilous venture. So why do it?
“If you look at the business plan for someone who wants to be a concert promoter, it’s pretty insane,” Mary Conde, senior vice president of Another Planet Entertainment (APE), says. “You have no guarantee of any income and you put up all the money. What kind of business plan is that?”
In 2022, a century after it first opened, APE signed on for a $41 million restoration of San Francisco’s historic Castro Theatre. It was a massive undertaking after decades of physical deterioration. Original pieces of architect Timothy L. Pflueger’s building were in disarray; clay tiles had disintegrated, water in the theater’s basement had led to erosion, and rebar was covered in decades of rust. “Asbestos was very popular in the Twenties. So was lead paint,” Conde says. “It was a building that really needed an intervention.”
During the construction period, some residents were concerned about APE’s involvement with the venue. But Conde notes that before the rehabilitation, the theater lacked many modern-day commonplaces: ADA access was nonexistent, as was central air conditioning. “In 10 or 15 years, [the venue] would have started crumbling,” she says. “It needed to be rescued.”
The reopened Castro Theatre in San Francisco aims for inclusivity.
Josh Withers*
After five years of renovations, the Castro Theatre officially reopened in February with a residency from singer Sam Smith. The venue has continued to operate as a concert hall and movie theater, honoring its historical roots with queer programming. They’ve retained Pfleuger’s original flourishes, and the entire building, from the orchestra to the dressing rooms, are finally ADA-accessible. They’ve also installed the world’s largest symphonic digital organ. “We’ve really made it a place where we want it to be inclusive,” Conde says. The first few events included community fundraisers and screenings with Castro Community Benefit District and Oasis Arts.
“People think of the Castro Theatre like a chapel. It’s a revered space in the LGBTQ+ pantheon of history,” Conde says. “We want that to continue.”
While fan experiences remain a top priority, those helming these venues also want artists to remember these spaces when the time comes to plan their next tour. “I had a bit of a revelation when touring, when [Mumford and Sons] were coming up through the different spaces,” Lovett says. “You spend so much time on the road. It doesn’t cost that much more to bring some of those hotel-level amenities to the back of house, where the artists are spending the majority of their day outside of soundcheck.”
An artist checking into the green room of Pacific Electric might feel like they’re stepping into an issue of Architectural Digest. The usual dingy couch and worn coffee table have been replaced by a full-on suite, complete with a skylight, piano, coffee, bar, and a walk-in shower. There’s even a similar, smaller room for the opening act.
“It’s about treating artists with respect,” Lovett says. “If the artist is happy, then they’re gonna go onstage and play harder and be more relaxed.”
Pacific Electric’s senior general manager, Stacey Levine, backs that concept and calls Lovett someone with a “great big vision.” Looking back at the venue’s beginnings, Levine says, “It was really amazing to watch that come to fruition because Ben definitely had a lot of hand in the design and how he wanted it to feel —a really fan-forward and artist-forward space.”
Stable Hall, which opened in January 2024, takes a similar approach. Located in San Antonio’s Pearl, a downtown neighborhood home to a blossoming culinary scene, Stable Hall has been booked by Dayglo Presents since 2025, but the building was first constructed in 1894 as quarters for the Pearl Brewing Company’s horses. Renovations on the venue cost $11 million, and include brand-new sound systems, six bars, and configurations for multiple seating charts, maxing out at a capacity of 1,000.
“If I book this room and I put somebody in here, are they going to want to come back?” Hannah Gold, the head talent buyer for Stable Hall, says. She trusts that the venue will leave a strong impression on artists, from the sound quality to the green room catering. “I know that I’m not going to get weird phone calls at 2 a.m. from a disgruntled tour manager.”
Like the Castro Theatre, Stable Hall pays reverence to the past. “I think it’s really important to honor and restore things and keep these pieces of our history in place,” Gold says. “It’s really important we don’t erase all of that stuff, because that is what makes a place unique, honors its history, and makes it enjoyable to spend time in.”
For Pacific Electric, part of their business model centers on welcoming all promoters and not keeping it exclusive to one company. It’s a full-circle moment for Lovett, who describes the venue as “a contemporary indie rock & roll club.”
Lovett likes to compare the experience of stepping into a music venue to listening to a great song. “Some of the best things you don’t want to end,” he says. “You might notice a lyric or a countermelody on a guitar that you don’t hear the first time. The song reveals itself subsequently. I like that in design, as well — how you can build up layers and storytelling in that way.”
He adds that Pacific Electric reminds him of his own youth in the late Nineties and early 2000s. “I just loved that era of my life,” Lovett says. “It felt non-conformist and free. I want Pacific Electric to be there for L.A., where fans and musicians feel like they can be fully expressive.”
