Changes at Q: Seattle nightclub upheaval?

A new venue for electronic dance music, EDM, opened in a century-old garage at Broadway and Pike last September: a nightclub named Q. At 12,000 square feet, with room for 700 party-goers, it's the same size, give or take, as the Showbox or the Last Supper Club. The owners were hoping it would mark the beginning of an exodus of clubs away from Pioneer Square. That hasn't happened; two new clubs in Pioneer Square, and more coming in Sodo.

The original co-owner and managing partner, Scott Smith, had done this before, in NYC's Chelsea district, where he created a high-tech, high-design club and gay bar called xl, the first nightclub in the country to feature computer-aided LED lighting. Q, he said last year, would be "a neighborhood club where you can expect exceptional music every day of the week."

But a week ago Smith puilled out. He gave this statement to Seattle Gay Scene (where we also found the photo):

"I closed on the sale my half of Q at noon today and I'm now back to being blissfully semi-retired again, as I was more than three years ago when I began the process of developing the club.

"Coming up with the idea for Q - as I did with xl in New York back in 1998/99 and as the only partner in Q with experience in business, business start-ups, and nightclub operations - and then supervising the design and construction of Q was a labor of love for me. And I'd be happy to share with you all that's transpired that has compelled me to desire to sell my interest in the business and part ways with the club - but I'm contractually obligated not to."

Smith's departure leaves Andy Rampl as the sole owner. "Scott had expressed his wishes to move back east and work on a new project, so he is leaving Q Nightclub," Rampl told Capitol Hill Seattle via email last week. "I wish him all the best for his new venture, and hope it will be as successful as his last."

Is Seattle's nightclub scene in disarray? Whatever happened to the much ballyhooed Aston Manor club in Sodo? Trinity and Last Supper in Pioneer Square? Watch this space.