Los Angeles City Council approves convention center expansion after fraught debate over cost, schedule and city risk

The Los Angeles City Council voted to proceed with a phased expansion and modernization of the Los Angeles Convention Center on Sept. 19, approving amended project cost limits and instructions to city staff after a daylong public hearing and debate.

City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo told the council the latest negotiated package reduced construction and city-retained costs and lowered the assumed financing rate, trimming the project’s direct construction price to about $2.62 billion and the amount to be financed to just over $3 billion. “These revisions ... move the average annual general fund impact from the $111,000,000 ... to $89,000,000 today,” Szabo said, summarizing the CAO office’s updated projections.

The council’s vote follows months of committee review and new figures brought forward in the special meeting. The CAO’s presentation said the expansion would add about 190,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space, 39,000 square feet of meeting rooms and a 95,000-square-foot multi-purpose space by connecting West Hall and South Hall across Pico Boulevard. The CAO brief listed projected direct and indirect benefits the city attributes to the project: roughly 13,300 construction jobs during the build, about 2,153 net new annual jobs after completion, at least 500,000 additional visitors across the first 10 years and a projected $652 million in net new general-fund tax revenue over 30 years.

Opponents and some council members pressed the city for more certainty on several points. Councilmember Yaroslavsky, chairing the Budget and Finance Committee, called the plan “unrealistic, unaffordable, and fiscally irresponsible,” warning that the average and peak general-fund impacts — the CAO projects a peak net general fund hit of roughly $147 million in 2031 — would consume most projected general-fund growth and limit the city’s ability to pay for other services and liabilities. “Every new dollar of growth in our general fund will already be committed to paying for this project for years to come,” he said.

Council members also questioned utility impacts and schedule risk tied to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. David Hansen, head of the power system at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, told council members that DWP had identified undergrounding and network-station work required to support the project and that completing that work alongside existing high-priority projects (for example, the Palisades restoration) will require close coordination and additional contracting and drafting capacity. APCLA, the developer, indicated it will deliver the circuits DWP requested, and the CAO emphasized the project’s tight schedule: the city must meet multiple deadlines to be “Olympic ready,” and delays could force relocation of booked Olympic supporting events or require the city to tap contingency funds.

Signage revenue — a previously significant assumed funding source — emerged as another constraint. Szabo said efforts to secure state authorization for freeway-facing digital signage did not produce the exemption the city sought; the CAO revised expected signage receipts down substantially. The CAO report now assumes on-site advertising revenue that adds roughly $11 million a year compared with prior, larger digital-signage projections.

Public comment at the special meeting was heavily weighted toward supporters from labor, business and downtown groups. Speakers included union leaders and industry representatives who emphasized jobs and local-hire requirements. Nolan Marshall, president and CEO of the Social District (which represents the convention center neighborhood), told the council, “This project is critical economic development infrastructure.” Labor speakers said the expansion would create thousands of construction and permanent jobs and that local apprenticeship and hire requirements were built into the project terms.

Councilmembers who voted to advance the project said the expansion is an investment in economic infrastructure that will help restore visitor-based revenues and anchor future development. Those who opposed the measure urged the council to pause or scale the project, invest immediately in targeted modernization and defer major expansion so the city can reduce fiscal exposure and clarify interdepartmental capacity.

Final action: the council approved amendments and instructions that set a maximum project budget (as amended in the meeting) and directed staff to proceed under the updated CAO terms. The council required weekly updates to the mayor’s office and council offices and added a separate instruction directing the City Administrative Officer and City Attorney to provide quarterly reporting commitments on local-hire compliance and other accountability measures.

The council’s action does not remove key project risks identified by staff: schedule sensitivity tied to the 2028 Olympic calendar, DWP utility relocation and undergrounding work that overlaps other high-priority projects, and revenue dependence on higher convention attendance and narrower signage assumptions. The CAO and departments said they will provide further implementation details and monitoring as the city proceeds.