Major New Development In Los Angeles Enterprise Zone

The Los Angeles Times reports today on the launch of a huge new development next to the Los Angeles Convention Center and Staples Center:

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.

"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.

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.

The story includes the fact that special incentives were offered by the City Council in order to secure the deal:

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.

What the story does not mention is that this part of downtown Los Angeles is included in the newly designated Enterprise Zone that replaces the expired Los Angeles Central City zone.