Los Angeles City Council approves plan to advance Convention Center modernization with conditions

The Los Angeles City Council voted 14–1 on April 9, 2025 to approve a motion directing city staff to finish negotiations and return with a final project agreement this summer to modernize and expand the Los Angeles Convention Center, while adopting a set of council amendments intended to limit city exposure and increase revenue certainty.

Council members and dozens of public commenters spent hours on the item, which drew repeated support from building-trades unions, convention-industry representatives and neighborhood groups who said the project would create union jobs and bring convention business back to downtown Los Angeles. Councilmembers pressed city staff on costs, revenue projections and risk allocation and required that remaining issues — including highway signage and other intergovernmental approvals — be resolved before the council would be asked to authorize project debt.

Why it matters: Council supporters said a modernized convention center could generate new conventions, jobs and tax revenue that would help the city’s broader fiscal picture. Skeptical members warned that construction risk, revenue assumptions and the city’s tight budget require strict limits on the amounts the city may absorb and clear evidence that projected new revenue and signage approvals are real.

Most important facts

- The council approved the project report as modified by three council amendments (identified in the meeting as modifications 13A, 13C and 13E) and directed city staff (COO and CLA) to complete negotiations and return with a final project agreement in July. The final approval to issue debt would be a later, separate council action.

- Councilmembers said…