Los Angeles needs a modern convention center & it won’t wait for AEG
Skift Take
Ridiculous that the city is held hostage to a billionaire's whims about an NFL team. While LAX is finally being upgraded with a $4 billion investment, time a meetings and convention center comes up to match that.
The top budget official at L.A. City Hall said Friday that he will begin researching other strategies for upgrading the city's Convention Center in case plans for developing a downtown football stadium fall apart.
One day after stadium proponent Anschutz Entertainment Group announced that its top executive had stepped aside and that the company was no longer for sale, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said the city's consultants will begin examining whether other private developers could be tapped to fix the convention facility.
The city's deal with AEG to develop an NFL stadium next to Staples Center provides for a $315-million upgrade of the convention center. But with AEG's leadership in flux and the stadium agreement set to expire in October 2014, Santana said the city shouldn't wait until the last minute to have other options available.
"There's been a number of changes in strategy on
