Los Angeles Convention Center Revamp Jeopardized By Fire Recovery

The dream of having the Los Angeles Convention Center revamped for the 2028 Olympics is up in the air. 

City officials, including top-level figures from the Bureau of Engineering and the Department of Building and Safety, will be spread thin from rebuilding efforts from the Palisades fire over the coming years, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

Before the fires, "we would have cut it extremely close" to complete the Convention Center expansion by 2028, City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo told the LA Times. “After the fires, it became impossible.”

Szabo said city analysts are weighing a number of ways to complete the project, including starting construction and then pausing during the Olympics and resuming once the events are over. Abandoning the revamp altogether is also an option. 

The council's economic development and jobs committee voted Tuesday afternoon to direct the City administrative officer and chief legislative analyst to return in 30 days with a series of options to modernize and expand the convention center, including short-term and long-term options. 

Labor groups and Downtown boosters gave public comment at the committee meeting in support of moving forward with upgrades in at least some form to the aging convention center. 

"While we can't finish an expanded convention center before the Olympics, I think we can modernize what we have — we must," Los Angeles Chief Tourism Officer Doane Liu said at the committee meeting Tuesday. "We're hosting the Paralympic Games and our building doesn't comply with ADA regulations. At a minimum, we have to do that."

Liu said that the convention center has about $100M of deferred maintenance that was put on the back burner over the years in anticipation of tying that work into the long-planned expansion.

"Our roof leaks and our toilets don't flush. At a minimum, we need to do that kind of work," Liu said. 

The convention center was supposed to host Olympic events in 2028, and the renovations and expansion of the property were timed to be finished so the upgraded center could be showcased. 

Liu said that the Olympics is not the reason that this work should be done, but at the very least, the venue should be clean, dry and safe for those events. 

City council voted last year to spend $54M on preconstruction work that was intended to speed up the project. There was momentum at that time and a push to get the project across the finish line.

The full expansion project was expected to cost upwards of $1B, though an exact price has not been negotiated between the city and the joint venture that would lead construction, AEG Plenary Conventions Los Angeles.

The ultimate fate of the convention center's revamp and the timing of that project lies with Mayor Karen Bass and the full city council. 

"Mayor Bass wants the modernization and expansion of the Convention Center to move forward as soon as possible to bring back downtown and drive an economic ripple effect as convention-goers stay in hotels, dine out and spend money across the city," a spokesperson for Bass told the Los Angeles Times.