USA – The development of the Los Angeles Convention Centre (LACC) and a new NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles has been brought closer to reality with the city council giving its blessing to a proposed financial plan for the development.
The council’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Downtown Stadium and Convention Center voted 4-0 to approve an agreement with developer Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) to replace a US$275m wing of the Center and build a $1.2bn stadium.
The full council will vote on the issue on 9 August, and approval would set the stage for another nine months of negotiation between both sides. “This is the table setting, not the meal,” councilor and stadium committee head Jan Perry told the Los Angeles Times.
The convention center’s West Hall will need to be pulled down and relocated at a cost of $275m in bonds repaid largely from new tax and lease income generated by the two projects, according to the proposal. AEG would finance the stadium on its own.
Committee member Bill Rosendahl initially reacted to the proposal with some skepticism, raising the question of stadium’s true impact on city finances and convention centre bookings, before voting in favour of the proposal. According to city negotiators, AEG promises to reimburse the city for any convention business lost as a result of stadium construction.
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