The initial cost for the pre-design work “could be as high as nearly” $100MVisions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The L.A. City Council voted 13 to 1 to spend $54.4M on “pre-design work" as part of a "plan to expand" the downtown Convention Center before 2028, when Southern California hosts the Olympic Games, according to Dakota Smith of the L.A. TIMES. The Convention Center “doesn’t need to be bigger” to host Olympic events such as table tennis and fencing. Still, city leaders “want to use the international gathering as an impetus to start construction.” The initial cost for the pre-design work “could be as high as nearly” $100M. The expansion plan, “if it proceeds from there, could cost” $4.78B over 30 years, “including debt on any loans.” But city analysts said that if engineers “conclude in the coming months that it can’t be completed in time for the Olympics or will go over budget, it won’t go forward.” Under the plan, the city “would pay for the construction of the center,” but the work “would be carried out through a private-public partnership” with Anschutz Entertainment Group, which runs the convention center, and development firm Plenary Group. AEG’s ticketing arm is “one of the companies handling sales for the Olympic Games” (
L.A. TIMES, 7/3).
