Los Angeles Officials Seeking NFL Alternative

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles city leaders want a convention center expansion and they aren't going to depend on AEG's proposal for a new National Football League stadium to get it done.

The city council's ad hoc Committee on the Proposed Stadium and Events Center has approved a motion asking the Urban Land Institute, Los Angeles division, to look at alternative developments for the West Hall convention center property if the Anschutz Entertainment Group football proposal fades away.

Under AEG's agreement, the company would pay for the expansion to the convention center's South Hall as part of a deal in which the firm would raze the convention center's West Hall and build an NFL football stadium, to be named Farmers Field, on that property.

City leaders say they remain fully committed to AEG's proposal of bringing a football team to Los Angeles, but with the city's contract with the firm expiring in 2014, they want to make sure they have alternatives.

The AEG agreement is conditioned on attracting an NFL team.

Under that financing plan, Los Angeles would issue between $287 million and $358.4 million in lease revenue bonds, as well as between $93.4 million and $109.7 million in Mello-Roos bonds, which cities can issue by creating special tax districts.

So far, there's been no indication that AEG will land a team. The firm itself, which had been for sale, was pulled off the market in March and its founder, billionaire Philip Anschutz, announced that AEG's longtime president, Tim Leiweke, would depart.

City staff met last week with Gail Goldberg, who once headed the city's planning department, and was named ULI-LA's executive director in May 2011, after a several-month stab at retirement.

"It's my understanding that city leaders are fully committed to working with AEG on their proposal," Goldberg said. "But AEG's failure to secure a team by the NFL deadline in February and with the company being on the market, and then off the market - the city felt, with an abundance of caution, that it should think of what the alternatives are to Farmers Field."

Enhancing and expanding the convention center remains a high priority for the city, Goldberg said.

ULI officials have only had preliminary discussions with city officials, but were asked to come up with alternatives to building a football field on the West Hall site that could enhance the marketability of the convention center and help with financing and expansion, Goldberg said.

"They asked if we could do something fairly quickly, by the end of May," Goldberg said. "We are trying to figure out what we could reasonably do by that time."

The Urban Land Institute is an international nonprofit education and research institute that focuses on land use with an emphasis on providing leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide.

Goldberg and her staff are working on forming a team of land-use experts drawing on local expertise because the time frame to craft a report is so short, she said. The team would be comprised of finance, land economists, designers, developers, and hopefully with people with expertise in convention centers, she said.

"We had a fairly brief meeting with city staff last week," said Goldberg. "They are familiar with the ULI technical advisory panels, which we do for jurisdictions all over the region."

ULI puts together panels that look at issues involving land-use facing the jurisdictions and provides recommendations, she said.

Locally, ULI-LA has crafted recommendations for Jordan Downs, an aging Watts public housing community, and L.A.'s Union Station, and is working on one for Santa Monica's civic center, Goldberg said.

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