The Echo's Mitchell Frank takes over downtown's Regent Theatre

This post has been corrected. See note below for details. 

After more than a year of speculation, the Echo's Mitchell Frank has confirmed the acquisition of a new venue -- the Regent Theatre in downtown Los Angeles' historic core.

Frank, whose concert-promotion company Spaceland Productions began hosting events in 1993 at the club now operating independently as the Satellite, said in an open letter that his company had signed a long-term lease on the Main Street space, which he plans to run as the Regent Theatre DTLA, and adapt into a live entertainment venue and restaurant. The letter includes a list of permit requests, among them a planned capacity of 1,289; full liquor license and operating hours of 8 a.m. to 4 a.m., which suggests a broad mix of hospitality and entertainment.

The Regent joins Frank's portfolio of restaurants, bars and music venues, including the Echo and Echoplex, contemporary Mexican restaurants Malo and Mas Malo, the latter a few blocks from the Regent, and Echo Park's El Prado beer and wine bar (all of which he co-owns with business partner Jeff Ellermeyer, save for the Regent). The Regent, once an adult movie theater, has officially been closed since 2000, but it has occasionally opened as a pop-up venue for art shows, movie screenings and as a record store. However, the Regent could profoundly affect downtown's nightlife culture in its new incarnation.

[For the record 2:06 p.m., Feb.2: An earlier version of this post listed Jeff Ellermeyer as co-owner of The Regent. Ellermeyer partnered with Frank at his other venues, but not The Regent.]

Frank indicated in 2010 that, after splitting with his former home venue, he was interested in an electronica and DJ-focused club. "Live indie rock music isn’t going to make anyone much money today. Bands need to get paid," he said in a 2010 interview. "But by us being able to have this new space and focus on the coming wave of dance music, and what we’ve seen with DJs and indie rock converging, people today want to shake a leg."

Frank will host a public meeting at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Regent to talk about the future of the space and take comments from locals. The full letter is below, after the jump.

Mitchell Frank talks about the end of Club Spaceland and his new dance-focused venue

In March, one of the most crucial clubs on the L.A. music scene for nearly two decades, especially for indie rock, will come to an end. But in a way, it won’t.

Club Spaceland, which promoter Mitchell Frank began as a weekly night in 1993 but which soon began monopolizing the bookings at 1717 Silver Lake Blvd., will officially cut ties with the venue next spring.  Frank plans to open a new venue that caters to electronica audiences. It will join a music, dining and nightlife stable at Spaceland Productions that also includes the Echo, the Echoplex, the Echo Park bar El Prado, the nouveau-Mexican restaurant Malo and the forthcoming Mas Malo downtown.

Meanwhile, at 1717 Silver Lake Blvd., owner Jeff Wolfram is making plans for a new club at the site, to be called the Satellite, including hiring Jennifer Tefft, Spaceland’s former music booker.

For those whose 20s and 30s were defined by watching or performing in local indie bands in the more-easterly climes of L.A., the change looks less drastic than one might expect. But the split still heralds the end of one particular moment in music in one of America’s most indie-centric neighborhoods, and may hint at what the next one entails.  We talked with Frank about what led to this split, what the new venue will offer and Spaceland’s legacy of moving weirdo music into the limelight and making mainstream rock a little stranger.

How long has this untethering between Spaceland Productions and the venue been planned?

It’s been on my mind for a while. I don’t own the venue, there were creative differences, and it was just time.  We were being told what to do, and I’m not one for being told what to book. I book what I like. It came to a head --  nothing major happened , but it just hit a boiling point. I couldn’t operate it as I wanted to.

In terms of the Spaceland Productions business model, how had that venue’s role changed for you over the last few years?

We had a wall between our venues. We’d make dueling offers and let the agents pick, and it just wasn’t as artist-friendly over there. It was growing difficult for us to do shows there.

You run the building that houses the Echo and the Echoplex. Did the fact that you didn’t run the venue that housed Spaceland affect this decision?

I cut a bad deal there when I was much more of a novice, and it never changed even after I made them millions of dollars. It’s going to be tough having to compete against it -– I’m now competing against my old talent buyer and against the club that I put on the map. I love Spaceland. I loved all the years I spent there. I just never had a good deal.