LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles is moving ahead with an alternative plan to expand its convention center given fading plans for a football stadium at the location.
The city's original plan, conceived nearly three years ago, was for the south section of the city's convention center to be razed to make way for a football stadium.
Under that plan, Anschutz Entertainment Group was to make lease payments to the city for that property, helping to fund construction of a new wing of the convention center that would provide contiguous convention space.
But the contract between the city and AEG, contingent on the stadium developer convincing a National Football League team to move to Los Angeles, expires on Oct. 18 with no indication that the NFL is going to place a team in L.A.
With the contract with AEG due to expire, the city is moving forward on a Plan B conceived last September, according to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
The Los Angeles City Council's Economic Development Committee on Tuesday voted in favor of the alternative plan. The proposal goes to the full council for a vote on June 4.
"I support moving forward on Plan B," Garcetti said. "It's time to modernize our convention center so our city attracts the nation's largest conventions and the economic benefits they provide."
Miguel Santana, the city's administrative officer, and Gerry Miller, chief legislative analyst have jointly drafted a report on the
The committee approved a recommendation that the Bureau of Engineering prepare a solicitation to seek qualified teams for professional design services to modernize and expand the convention center, according to the report.
The solicitation is ready for public release and the CAO has identified funds to compensate architects selected for the design competition phase of this project.
The report recommends that the City Council and Mayor authorize release of the solicitation seeking architects to design an expansion and modernization of the convention center that would explore all options including the concept of a public private partnership. It also asks city leaders to authorize that $600,000 be financed from the Municipal Improvement Corporation of Los Angeles commercial paper program to pay for pre-design work from the three applicants at a cost of $200,000 each.
"It is essential to initiate a Plan B due to the time required to develop and complete architectural designs for a different project," according to the report. The convention center has not been upgraded in over 20 years and is limited due to a lack of contiguous exhibit space.
San Diego, Anaheim, and San Francisco, the city's main convention center competitors, have all initiated major expansions and renovations of their facilities.
"Convention center clients have taken notice and commented that their future plans with regard to Los Angeles are dependent upon the city taking decisive, clear action to modernize the LACC," according to the report.
Though the city has come up with a schedule for the pre-design, design and construction of its alternative proposal, it still holds out hope that AEG will be successful in its efforts.
"The city would not be obligated to make a selection of a design team and may withdraw this competition at any time should the NFL determine that a team will locate to Los Angeles in accordance with the NH-EC agreement," according to the report.
The MICLA debt would be financed from the 2013-14 MICLA commercial paper program. Upon creation of the Los Angeles Convention Center Commercial Paper Program, the city's MICLA program would be reimbursed the $600,000 cost.
The cost of issuance is $2,500, which accounts for costs associated with the interest, letter of credit and remarketing fee rates. The total cost is based on a rate that ranges between 0.82 and 1.12%, according to the report.
