Los Angeles City Council green lights Convention Center expansion
After years of delay, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday, April 9, to move forward with a phased expansion of the Convention Center, a project that supporters say will modernize the aging facility ahead of the 2028 Olympics.
The long-stalled effort almost collapsed earlier this year after city staff warned that wildfire recovery efforts and a looming budget crisis made the original construction timeline impossible. Under the phased plan, work will begin later this year, with major upgrades completed before the Olympics and the rest finished afterward–a compromise supporters argue is critical to boosting tourism and keeping Los Angeles competitive for major events.
“I know my answer, and the answer of the committee yesterday was ‘move forward’,” said Councilmember Curren Price, who chairs the Economic Development and Jobs Committee.
Price, who has represented the district that includes the Convention Center since 2013, noted that he has been working on the expansion “for the entirety of my time here on the Council.”
The expansion calls for adding new exhibit space, meeting rooms and modern amenities. The project has struggled to move forward for more than a decade due to factors ranging from cost overruns to the pandemic.
City officials have long warned that the venue’s aging structure and lack of space made it difficult to attract large, high-profile events. According to the city’s Chief Tourism Officer Doane Liu, the outdated facility has also prevented the Convention Center from raising rental rates since 2006.
Those challenges have contributed to Los Angeles placing 21st in a 2023 Wall Street Journal ranking of 30 major U.S. convention centers.
Over the years, supporters have watched expansion efforts repeatedly stall, but they saw new hope last summer when the City Council approved $54.4 million for pre-design work as part of a plan to finish the project before the 2028 Olympics.
That timeline unraveled in January, when a joint report from the City Administrative Officer and Chief Legislative Analyst warned that ongoing wildfire recovery efforts would make it impossible to complete construction before the Games. At the same time, Los Angeles faced a projected $1 billion budget shortfall for the 2025-26 fiscal year, raising fears of widespread city layoffs.
With the original goal off the table, city staff presented two options: pursue a “phased delivery” plan that would start construction in September, complete major upgrades before the Olympics, then resume work after the Games—or terminate the project entirely.
That set the stage for a key vote on Tuesday, when the City Council’s five-member Economic Development and Jobs Committee backed the phased approach after hearing hours of testimony from supporters.
On Wednesday, the debate shifted to the City Council, where more than 30 speakers addressed the project ahead of the final vote.
Most were union representatives from trades such as painting, lighting, carpentry and trade show installation, who spoke about the union jobs the expansion could bring. Downtown residents and business leaders also voiced support.
South Park resident Debra Shrout highlighted the Convention Center’s importance to the broader downtown community.
“I can tell you living two blocks away from the Convention Center, a place where, five days a week, I walk around in two and a half laps,” Shrout said. “I know the energy, I know how vibrant it is. I know it is active and dynamic, and all of that spills into my neighborhood.”
Council members Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Martinez, who had voiced opposition to the project at Tuesday’s committee meeting, changed their positions ahead of Wednesday’s City Council vote.
Jurado said she reconsidered after taking a closer look at additional data showing downtown’s economic impact.
“Let me tell you what I found out,” Jurado said, “1% of the city land is in downtown L.A., and it generates historically 25% of the city’s TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax) revenue. That’s from downtown L.A. So a strong downtown L.A. means a strong Los Angeles and a stronger city budget. As we look at reducing spending, we need to think about increasing revenue.”
However, not all council members were convinced.
Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who voted against the proposal along with Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, warned that the cost of the project would come at the expense of the city’s workforce.
“Listen, it’s the same budget, folks, it comes out of the same pocketbook of everybody,” Rodriguez said. “For every $100,000 we approve towards this, and we’ve already spent another $54 million, which is upwards of $100 million dollars, that’s the equivalent of nearly a 1,000 jobs of city workforce. So we’re just trading out one for the other.”
Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who chairs the Budget and Finance Committee, said she supported revitalizing downtown but could not back the current proposal without stronger financial safeguards, citing the city’s looming budget crisis and potential layoffs.
Yaroslavsky said, “At a minimum, we need a revised report in numbers that include a value engineered option” which aims to keep the project’s impact on the General Fund as low as possible. That would involve reassessing the project’s technical requirements, scope, materials and other elements to find ways to reduce the overall cost.
The cost of the phased expansion project is estimated at $2.2 billion. But City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo said the expansion would not have an immediate impact on the general fund, because the city plans to issue debt to cover construction costs, with debt service payments rolled into future budgets.
The expansion will add 190,000 square feet of exhibit hall space, 55,000 square feet of meeting rooms, and 95,000 square feet of multi-purpose space to the Convention Center. The redesign will create 750,000 square feet of hall space and more than 1.2 million square feet of usable space across the campus.
The project also calls for connecting the South and West halls with a new building over Pico Boulevard, modernizing the facility, redesigning the adjacent Gilbert Lindsay Plaza to improve public amenities, and installing new signage across the campus.
Under the phased construction plan, work will begin in 2025 and pause well in advance of the 2028 Olympics, clearing the site for the Games, Szabo said. Afterward, construction will resume — focusing mainly on interior work — with the expansion expected to be completed by March 2029.
During construction, the Convention Center’s West and South halls will remain open for events, with the work scheduled to avoid disrupting existing operations, he added.