$1 Billion Downtown Development Approved
The Los Angeles City Council approved a $1 billion plan on Sept. 3 to build a downtown shopping, dining and entertainment district around the Staples Center.
The council voted 13-0 to transform the 27-acre area around Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa Street into a complex including two hotels, a 7,000-seat arena and two apartment towers with a total of 800 units. A 250,000-square-foot expansion of the adjacent Los Angeles Convention Center is in the works.
Though the agreement doesn’t stipulate plans for the larger 45-story hotel, Tim Leiweke, president of Arena Land Co., which owns Staples Center, assured council members that the hotel is a priority for the development group led by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz of the Anschutz Entertainment Group and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. He said they would submit plans for the hotel later in the year.
In their move to energize downtown, the developers have attracted a strong coalition of supporters, who have praised the group for its efforts to provide affordable housing and jobs with fair wages. —Nola Sarkisian-Miller
