A-list folk rocker builds downtown jewel-box venue

Instead, Lovett was calf-deep in sludgy rain water flooding the streets from a sudden downpour, standing at the roll-gate of a ripped-apart warehouse. 'You'll need this,' Lovett told a Times reporter as he handed out hardhats, walking his construction team through the still-raw hallways

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On a dreary February afternoon in Chinatown, Ben Lovett, pianist and keyboardist of the British folk-rock group Mumford & Sons, was hours away from releasing his band's sixth album, "Prizefighter."

The LP — co-produced by Aaron Dessner with guests Hozier, Gracie Abrams and Chris Stapleton — rejuvenates a catalog that includes a Grammy for album of the year in 2013.

He could have been celebrating, or at least resting up for his upcoming "Saturday Night Live" gig and fall arena tour. Instead, Lovett was calf-deep in sludgy rain water flooding the streets from a sudden downpour, standing at the roll-gate of a ripped-apart warehouse. "You'll need this," Lovett told a Times reporter as he handed out hardhats, walking his construction team through the still-raw hallways, shouting over a cacophony of circular saws.

In a few weeks, this site will be Pacific Electric, a new 750-capacity music venue that Lovett and his venue-developer firm TVG Hospitality have been converting for six years. It's a small but ambitious entry into a Los Angeles venue landscape that's recovering from fire and economic woes, yet has also seen several jolts of life recently.

Pacific Electric is a new flagship for the team at TVG, which has become an independent-scene force in the US and UK over the last decade. Beyond his band, this project plants Lovett's flag as an LA live music entrepreneur too. "I've never had such a significant moment around a venue launch," Lovett said in the soon-to-be dressing room at Pacific Electric. "It's the seventh venue we've done, but it has never coincided with such an important creative moment with the band. I have to be very disciplined right now."