New East Hollywood music venue, the Vermont Hollywood, scheduled to open next year

A busy East Hollywood intersection is about to get a new draw.

A former movie theater on the southeast corner of Vermont and Santa Monica is set to reopen next year as a music venue called Vermont Hollywood. Alexander Massachi, vice president of MCAP Partners, which owns the venue, says it will “become the gold standard for the ultimate concert and event-going experience.”

Designed by Santa Monica-based Ryder Design & Architecture, the 10,000-square-foot music venue is equipped to hold up to 1,200 people.

The building most recently functioned as a movie theater, Campus Theater, and then a performing arts space, El Teatro Casablanca. It was purchased by MCAP Partners in 2010.

Massachi says it took six years to get approval for the project because it faced “the usual opposition from neighbors,” including an attempt to stop the project made by the Silverstein Law Firm, which is famous for stalling developments across the city.

The venue won’t have a particular musical focus, but it will have shows booked by a handful of vendors three to four nights a week, leaving some open days when the space could be rented for private events.

The Vermont Hollywood will be just up the street from Los Angeles City College, and across the street from the Vermont/Santa Monica Red Line station. There’s also an affordable housing project in the works for the corner above the Red Line station. The project, proposed by the non-profit Little Tokyo Service Center, doesn’t have a clear timeline.

• Affordable housing project proposed atop Vermont/Santa Monica Red Line station [Curbed LA]