The city council ad hoc committee on the convention center hotel met today. I can't find minutes to the meeting or any articles about what happened. Do any of you know? I hope this goes through and construction begins soon. This would be great for downtown and great for the city.

City panel OKs plans for hotel tax breaks



By James Nash
Staff Writer


Los Angeles officials moved ahead Wednesday with plans to provide up to $180 million in tax breaks and other incentives to the developer of a Convention Center hotel, despite concerns the project could overwhelm city inspectors.
The Engineers and Architects Association, which represents building and safety inspectors, argued that the city should not subsidize the proposed 1,200-room hotel as long as a wage and hiring freeze is in effect.

"There's going to be an increased impact on building and safety inspectors," said Angel Calvo, a leader of the association. "To be told they can't get a raise is outrageous."

The City Council's Ad Hoc Committee on a Convention Center Hotel voted Wednesday to proceed with plans to give the hotel developer a secured $22 million loan, $10 million in improvements to infrastructure at the site, and $7 million in deferred fees.

In addition, the city is offering to waive $110 million to $140 million in hotel occupancy taxes over 20 years.

City officials say the incentives are needed to lure a hotel to the Convention Center, where attendance has been lagging over the last decade.

Earlier this week, the Brookings Institution released a study saying the city's plan to subsidize the hotel would repeat mistakes made by other cities and would not reap huge profits.

But City Council President Alex Padilla, who sits on the ad hoc committee, said the hotel would jump-start improvements near the Convention Center and ultimately benefit all of Los Angeles.

"One of the big things for me is that the people of Los Angeles benefit from this, too, not just the people who are visiting," Padilla said.

Councilman Bernard C. Parks, another committee member, said he's not opposed to waiving occupancy taxes because without a hotel, there would be no taxes to receive.

"I don't have a problem with sharing those profits that the city wouldn't have gotten," Parks said.

City officials noted that Los Angeles has subsidized other major hotels through public improvements, discounts on land and other measures.

City Administrative Officer William Fujioka said the subsidies are unrelated to the wage freeze for the building and safety inspectors, which is part of the city's overall effort to contain personnel costs.

Good news. were on our way to a groundbreaking and i cant wait.

.... don't hope too much just yet .....


I suspect there will be a lawsuit *cough*westin bonaventure*cough* coming around soon ........

I might be wrong, but wouldn't more things in downtown be good for the bonaventure? I know there will be a competing hotel at LA live, but the amount of people the complex could bring in would hopefully help bring others to different sections of DT...especially with all the work on Grand Ave. as well...

yes you are very right. people are very short sighted and selfish

I might be wrong, but wouldn't more things in downtown be good for the bonaventure? I know there will be a competing hotel at LA live, but the amount of people the complex could bring in would hopefully help bring others to different sections of DT...especially with all the work on Grand Ave. as well...

not only that, but the owner of the bonaventure should quit worrying about LA Live and be happy that Grand Avenue project is right in its backyard. Once that thing gets going, the Westin Bonaventure will get a lot of Grand Avenue Business while LA Live's new Hilton Tower hotel will get LA Live/Convention Center business... there is enough to go around.

^ That's exactly what I was thinking. The Westin would get tons of business from Grand Ave. The guy honestly just needs to shutup and get over it. I've been to the Westin, and I.M.O. it's really nice which should attract the rich, along with the middle class.

plus having more rooms available right next to the Convention Center will increase the viability of the Convention Center itself...from what I understand, the Convention Center has been losing money because it doesn't have enough events, and part of the reason for that is because there isn't enough hotel rooms right close to it...

^ exactly right. with LA Live and all the other changes in that area, the Tax break will pay for itself rather quickly in other ways. people dont understand that for some reason. Anyways, the city formally voeted for the tax breaks yesterday, 14-0 so its on its way!

La Vive LA Live!

OK, I read last week in the times that city loans have all been approved, and (possible) May, 05 groundbreaking, i also read that this hotel must be completed, before the retail aspect, (i.e. LA live project) can begin.

yup, that was great news about the city approval. they said they want to push dirt by summer and did mention may or june. i also read that the first thing to be completed would be the Nokia theater, so i presume the nokia would break ground in summer, folled shortly by the hotel and then the Restaurant/Bar/ESPN plaza area.

Cool, the more fresh turned dirt, and rising steel and concrete, the better!!!!!!!!!!!