From the LA Times, regarding the Los Angeles Convention Center:
L.A. City Council panel backs billion-dollar plan to redo Convention Center for 2028 Olympics
By Dakota Smith
Staff Writer
June 19, 2024 3 AM PT
A Los Angeles City Council committee on Tuesday backed an effort to remodel the downtown Convention Center ahead of the 2028 Olympics, even as city leaders acknowledged the ambitious time frame for completing the project.
The council’s Trade, Travel and Tourism Committee voted to spend up to $54.4 million for preconstruction work on the aging, city-owned Convention Center, a proposal that now heads to the full City Council for a vote.
The 2028 Olympics were billed by proponents as fiscally prudent because no major venues needed to be built. But with table tennis and other events planned at the Convention Center, city leaders want to use the Games as an impetus to start construction that could ultimately cost billions of dollars.
Over the last decade, various plans for modernizing the center, which opened in 1971, have been proposed but have not moved forward.
Business and labor leaders packed Tuesday’s meeting to support the project, arguing it would help the economy, create jobs and revitalize downtown.
Nella McOsker, president of the downtown business group Central City Assn., told the five-member committee that this “is a challenging moment for the city and a challenging decision to make, but surely the right one.”
If the Convention Center is expanded, the city would pay for the construction but the work would be carried out through a private-public partnership with Anschutz Entertainment Group, which runs the convention center, and development firm Plenary Group.
In the short term, the city will spend up to $54.4 million on preconstruction design work. The City Council is expected to vote later this year on a final work agreement for the entire project with AEG and Plenary group.
However, if it becomes clear during the preconstruction work that the timeline for final completion isn’t feasible, the city can pull the plug, officials said Tuesday.
Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso warned council members at the meeting that it will be challenging to get the project done before the Olympics, calling the schedule “very fast-paced.”
“There is no room for error in this timeline,” she said.
The redesign would address the lack of contiguous space at the center, which is viewed by city officials as a major problem for attracting convention-goers. None of the existing facilities would be demolished under the proposal, and the new construction would connect the Convention Center buildings, adding 190,000 square feet of additional exhibit hall space, 55,000 square feet of additional meeting room space and 95,000 square feet of multipurpose space.
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