AEG Head Says He Has Big Plans for Area Around L.A. Live

By Eric Richardson
Published: Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at 03:23PM

Tim Leiweke Eric Richardson [Flickr]

AEG CEO Tim Leiweke at the grand opening of L.A. Live's ESPN studios earlier this month.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — In the midst of construction on a $2.5 billion sports and entertainment complex, some surprises are worse than others. AEG CEO Tim Leiweke's big surprise was the economy. "We kind of knew there was a correction coming," he said today, "but this is not a correction. This is a life-altering adjustment."

That isn't keeping Leiweke and AEG from moving ahead. "We have spent the last few months already on phase two and trying to dream about the next piece of that district that we need to build out." That could mean up to a billion dollars in additional development around the L.A. Live complex.

Leiweke was at the Music Center today, where the Los Angeles Headquarters Association presented him with its annual Spirit of Los Angeles award. It was the 48th Annual Awards Luncheon for the association, which represents businesses based in Los Angeles.

"I think the fact that we started the hotel probably makes people give us awards in this economy," Leiweke told the audience, "but we believe that our best days are still in front of us. We believe that there is much more for us to do as a company worldwide. We also believe that there's much more for us to do as a company in Los Angeles."

A major piece of that next phase is a second hotel for L.A. Live, slated to rise across Olympic from the rest of the complex. "We're working on it," Leiweke said. "There's not a day that goes by that Ted Tanner or myself or our crew isn't focused on the next phase."

A groundbreaking date for that hotel has yet to be set, and Leiweke said that it remains a struggle to find development partners and financing. "The economy means that we've got to find brave spirits and there's a lot less of those right now," he said, "but this too shall pass."

"We have a saying in our office that the bankers are sometimes harder to find than Bin Laden. We've got to wait for them to come out of their caves. I haven't seen them yet."

Once that second hotel does get built, it is going to need an operator. "Hard Rock, Hyatt and W are all sniffing down there," Leiweke said. "Any of those three would be fantastic."

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Comments

1
Paul Britton writes:

Wasn't there to be a new Marriott brand at that site? Encore I believe it was to be called?

I'm down with a W Hotel there any day. The activation of Olympic blvd continues!!

The movie theatre is coming along -- driving by along the 110 looks like there has been significant progress of late.

# on Apr.28.2009 AT 05:08 PM
2
Eric Richardson writes:

Marriott had been rumored as an operator, potentially for their announced Edition brand. My understanding is that the Edition flag may not be happening.

# on Apr.28.2009 AT 05:24 PM
3
Don Garza writes:

great find ERIC

# on Apr.28.2009 AT 05:43 PM
4
D writes:

AEG has done wonders for Downtown LA! i wonder what else phase two would consist of. The hotel obviously, and i think they own the lot on Olympic right next to the freeway. do they own land from olympic to the Metropolis site? that would be a huge link and a very necessary one since that block has old, rundown buildings, utility poles and no pedestrian orientation whatsoever.

# on Apr.28.2009 AT 09:28 PM
5
Ken H writes:

This might be a little off the subject, but I have a question...does anyone know anything about the "projection advertising" being shown onto the AT&T Building in South Park??...I noticed it tonight (4/28)...is this something new? or has it going on for a while?...it looks like it is being projected from the EVO building onto the AT&T building. I thought it was really neat, although it was a kinda hard to really see the images. I think the name of the advertising company was "On Wall Advertising"....just curious.

# on Apr.28.2009 AT 10:24 PM
6
John Shelton writes:

Ken, the projection advertising you saw on the AT&T building in downtown Los Angeles was a test run by Illumenight, LLC, which provides grand-scale high resolution projection advertising, and AT&T, owners of the building.

For more information, check out Illumenight's website at:

http://www.illumenight.com

If you have any further questions, feel free to inquire from the site.

John Shelton

Illumenight, LLC

# on Apr.29.2009 AT 03:38 PM
7
duh writes:

Um ... let me guess.... Projection advertising, since not a physical sign or structure to which anything is attached, completely skirts City ordinances (existing and or proposed) -- while providing glaring light and disruption to those unfortunate enough to be in eyesight range. good job!

# on Apr.29.2009 AT 05:29 PM
8
Dennis Hathaway writes:

The Illumenight website illustrates a Blade Runner-esque future that is technologically possible right now, and everyone who has reservations about turning chunks of the city into a swirling sea of commercial advertising ought to be thinking about how people can be assured the right NOT to have this experience forced upon them whenever they venture into the city streets.

For alternative views, go to www.banbillboardblight.org

# on Apr.29.2009 AT 06:53 PM
9
Ken H writes:

Thank you very much for the information John!

# on Apr.29.2009 AT 09:53 PM
10
JDRCRASH writes:

Dennis, your claim has one important flaw: This is in Downtown, a place that goes dark and unwelcoming at night. The young citizens of this growing neighborhood want that to change....

# on May.20.2009 AT 11:15 AM

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