Construction Snags Postpone Opening of Knitting Factory

The Knitting Factory Hollywood, originally scheduled to kick off an expansive schedule of music shows tonight with an opening appearance by the band Luna, has encountered construction delays. As a result, all performances in June have been either canceled or postponed until the new opening date, tentatively scheduled for the first week of July.

“We had the first inkling of a problem late on Thursday,” said Knitting Factoryn Chief Executive Michael Dorf from New York, where he is producing the two-week-long Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival. “That’s when we first discovered there was the possibility that construction might not be completed. Over the weekend, we kept going back and forth with the contractors, hoping that all the last-minute delays could be overcome.”

The club is being built in the Galaxy building on Hollywood Boulevard, just east of La Brea Avenue. It will be the third Knitting Factory venue, joining New York City and Berlin.

On Monday, Dorf was told that a Wednesday opening was out of the question and, to his dismay, that there were no guarantees construction could be completed for the grand opening on June 14.

“Obviously, I was completely dismayed,” explained Dorf. “This has already been very expensive; it’s over budget, and we’re paying rent every day. But we weren’t ready to compromise on any of the things we wanted in the venue--the recording studio, the carefully designed acoustics, the computer terminals to connect the club with our New York venue. These are all the elements we’ve been hyping.”

Dorf finally made the decision on Monday to jettison all the plans for performances, parties and celebrations. A new schedule, which will include most of the originally listed performers, is being put together.

“It looks as though we’ll have our grand opening in the first week of July,” he explained. “We may be sitting around with a finished, empty club for a week or so at the end of June, but--given all the new and innovative things we’re doing with this club--getting it right the first time is more than worth the wait.”