DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — I'm almost to the point where I'm not going to mention the Grand Avenue Project until there's a groundbreaking date to report, but I thought it worth noting the Times' report that the City Council's Planning Committee approved tract maps for the project and rejected the Bonaventure's appeal.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been trying to strike a deal with Bonaventure owner Peter Zen that would head off a time-consuming legal battle over the project. Zen issued a similar legal threat two years ago when the city offered tax breaks to L.A. Live, another hotel mega-project being built near Staples Center.

In that case, Villaraigosa reached an agreement that allowed Zen to convert some of his hotel rooms into condominiums if vacancy rates reached a certain threshold.

It sounds like Peter Zen may have been taking lessons from Conquest (or perhaps the other way around?). In less pleasant news, groundbreaking has been pushed back to December.