LA’s Largest Nightlife Site
Expands into the Nightclub Buying/Selling Business

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. JUNE 11, 2007

Los Angeles’ largest nightlife site – lalate.com – today announced it is going into the business broker industry becoming just one of a handful of companies assisting high net worth individuals and venue owners privately sell or purchase nightclubs, bars, and lounges throughout in Southern California. The difference, however, will be that lalate’s company – called the Late Group – will be the only business broker in the City that is run by persons actually in the nightlife industry. “Until the Late Group, if you wanted a business broker actually IN the nightlife industry, you’d have a darn hard time finding one,” explained lalate. (continued …)

Los Angeles nightlife is currently starting its five year cycle for new venues openings. This year the City according to the Late Group has more nightclubs and bar opening than in recent memory. Venues are opening not just in the Hollywood corridor but also in new outlining areas like Silverlake, West Los Angeles, and Downtown.

The difference with the Late Group entering the business broker business is that it hears about venues before anyone else. Currently lalate’s database spans five figures with viewership into six figures. “We put out an announcement last week about the Late Group being formed. Within 30 minutes, we had two major venues contact us.” Lalate’s leadership in LA nightlife for half a decade is unmatched. It has gotten young Hollywood into over 30,000 events, carried virtually every major nightclub opening, and has consistently had access for clubogers to over 90% of LA’s top venues. “If any time in the last half decade you named a top LA venue, we got our members into it, every week, often several times a week. We carry that many top venues for our members.”

“We chatted with some business brokers before launching the Late Group. I wasn’t impressed. One even used the term “Hollywood promoter” like it’s a derogatory word. When I heard that, and this whole aura of how nightlife people can’t afford to purchase nightlife venues coming from the mouth of a real estate broker not in the industry, I knew there was a need for the Late Group.”

The Late Group can be reached at lategroup@lalate.com.

Share:  Digg |  Del.icio.us | Bookmark

 |

• Comments (0)

Nightlife Left in the Last Century
LA’s New Downtown Megaclub Tatou is Just Another Century Club, Initially

Back in the last century, before there was Paris and Lindsay, before there was Hyde or Les Deux, TMZ or Perez, SPE or even this author lalate.com, nightlife in Los Angeles was a whole different ballgame. It generally wasn’t VIP as we know it today but general admission. If you were young, hot, and had over $12 dollar to spend on parking alone, you’d go to the Century Club located in Century City. LA didn’t have any larger scale clubs like the Highlands, Garden of Eden, or Ivar (now Fascade); they hadn’t been built. Exclusivity in nightlife was not the core of the LA latenight scene. So in earlier years Century Club was wonderful. Hot people, amazing music, superb dining (especially the fish) that would get you a balcony table before the nightlife began. Killer music of all genres. That was then.

In later years, as exclusivity rose in nightlife, Century and its image went south. Century got left in the last century, as the industry moved to upscale nightlife and anyone in the know – or at least trying to be - went to exclusive, not general admission, venues across the Southland. If you were with friends (and celebs) at White Lotus or then Spider Club or then Shelter or then Les Deux, asking those friends to join you at Century Club the next night would get an “eeew” response.

Century Club is gone. So its owner has taken the leap to revitalize a similarly large space, the expansive Vertigo turned Prince’s Glam Slam turned abandoned nightclub, and enter the nightlife arena again, now in Downtown. It’s called Tatou and it just opened off the 3rd freeway in downtown Los Angeles. Where is that? Don’t worry, you shouldn’t go your night off from Area or Sugar, because, at least on Saturdays, yep, it’s “eeew” all over.

Tatou which could be an amazing spot, and still can, is a starting on this night as mistake, a reinvention of everything that was wrong with Century Club now brought Downtown. We went last Saturday to Tatou. Correction, we got to the venue, saw what we saw outside, and left. The crowd was awful. The line operation felt like a rave. The promotional flyer for the night, which had no promotions, was worse than a highschool project. The building is hardly repainted, if at all, and upon arrival it exudes no vestige of anything upscale. The parking lot is located off a dead-end road next to the freeway and is hardly paved. Reinventing, or relocating, Century as Tatou may do well for a downtown crowd, but not for upscale clubgoers willing to fight the miserable freeway traffic to get to the spot. At least for this night, Tatou is a venue worth skipping.

Share:  Digg |  Del.icio.us | Bookmark

 |

• Comments (0)