Downtown project to get really 'Live'
Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott part of downtown L.A. Live project

By Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 01, 2007


It's been the dream of downtown boosters for decades. And today, that vision will finally begin to take shape as crews begin to erect a high-rise, high-end hotel complex adjoining the Los Angeles Convention Center.

JW Marriott and upscale Ritz-Carlton will operate separate hotels in the building on Olympic Boulevard. Combined, there will be 1,001 guest rooms when the hotels open in 2010. The Marriott will also operate one of the largest ballrooms in Los Angeles, with a seating capacity of 3,000. The top 26 floors will house 224 luxury condos attended to by the Ritz-Carlton staff.

At a ceremony today, AEG plans to announce that Wachovia Corp. and investment firm MacFarlane Partners have signed on to help finance the 54-story, $900-million hotel and condominium complex — the cornerstone of the $2.5-billion L.A. Live entertainment center.


The 4-million-square-foot development also will have movie theaters, restaurants, nightclubs, a bowling alley, offices and the Grammy Museum, all expected to be completed by 2010. Other developers have completed or are in the process of building almost 1,700 apartments and condos on blocks nearby.

"This is the most important thing we have ever done as a company," said AEG President Tim Leiweke, whose company owns Staples Center and the Los Angeles Kings NHL hockey team, among other teams and arenas. "It will change the economy of not just downtown but of Los Angeles."

Civic leaders see the hotel project as crucial to attracting the kinds of big-league, national conventions that now go to places such as Anaheim, San Diego and San Francisco.

The deal approved by the City Council calls for AEG to receive a rebate of at least $246 million in the hotel bed taxes it is expected to generate during the first 25 years of operation. In addition, the project is being given a $5-million grant from the city redevelopment agency and a rebate of $4 million in building permit fees.

Those concessions from the city were essential to getting the hotel started, Leiweke said.

Also helping fund construction of the hotel are the expected sales of the condominiums, which are priced at $1.5 million to $6 million. Buyers have already made deposits on nearly half of the units, Leiweke said.

Construction is well underway on other portions of L.A. Live, including the 7,100-seat Nokia Theatre and a separate studio building for sports broadcaster ESPN. The theater is set to open in October and is expected to host such events as the Emmy Awards, Country Music Awards and Miss USA pageant.