$350-Million Expansion of Convention Center Urged

A $350-million expansion that would more than double the size of the Los Angeles Convention Center was jointly proposed Monday by the city’s chief administrative officer and a blue ribbon citizens’ committee.

The expansion, as envisioned by Administrative Officer Keith A. Comrie and the 21-member Convention Center expansion committee, would add 375,000 square feet of permanent exhibition space to the 235,000-square-foot facility. Including meeting and banquet rooms and support facilities, the space in the 14-year-old center would be increased from 566,287 square feet to nearly 1.4 million square feet.

“We think it’s a fine project for the community, a good clean industry,” Comrie said of the expansion.

The move to increase the center’s size occurs as cities around the nation are expanding their centers or building huge ones, and are threatening to draw off profit-making trade shows and other gatherings that are outgrowing the Los Angeles center.

Los Angeles now gathers 14% of the convention trade in the western United States, ranking behind Anaheim, Las Vegas and San Francisco. The city-owned center is smaller than those of 10 other major cities, including Dallas, New York, Atlanta and New Orleans, the committee report said.

Comrie and the committee urged the City Council and Mayor Tom Bradley to hurriedly approve a bond issue for the expansion before federal tax bills, if passed, strip the city of the ability to float a tax-free construction bond.

The city would then have to approve the sale of bonds before Jan. 1 to take advantage of the tax-exempt status, Comrie said. Without such tax-free status, which cuts the interest on the bonds to well below market rates, the project could be doomed, he said.

In addition to the bond issue, the joint recommendation asked that the city’s hotel bed tax be increased from 10% to 11.5% to help pay for the project.

Comrie said the suggested bond issue would raise the city’s annual Convention Center mortgage from $3 million to $38 million, but he said new earnings by the center would offset the gain.

The addition would be built on a quadrant south of the center, bordered roughly by Pico Boulevard on the north, Figueroa Street to the east, Venice Boulevard to the south and the Harbor Freeway to the west. The construction would displace residents and businesses along that corridor. There was no immediate indication whether the city would help them relocate.

The two main exhibition halls, separated by Pico Boulevard, would be linked by a walkway over the street, according to a preliminary study included in the committee report.

The Convention Center opened to the public in 1971, but for several years suffered from underuse. As recently as 1975-76, the facility was booked less than half of the year. But Convention Center officials then began a strenuous marketing campaign, and in recent years the center has been full about 75% of the time, center general manager Dick Walsh said.

Given traditional slow periods around holidays, an 80% occupancy rate is considered the maximum a convention center can achieve, he said.

The original center, consisting of 560,000 square feet, cost $43 million. The 105,000-square-foot North Hall, a temporary building completed in 1981, cost another $2.9 million.

The committee report said the addition would cost $168 million, almost four times as expensive as the original. The remainder of the $350-million bond would be used for land acquisition, architectural fees and the interest due bond buyers.

According to the report, exhibition space would be expanded from 235,000 to 610,000 square feet, and meeting rooms would be increased from 63,000 to 162,000 square feet. No banquet rooms now exist, but the addition calls for 60,000 square feet for dining. Support offices would be expanded from 162,987 to 558,000 square feet.

Walsh said the addition would allow the center to tear down the North Hall and the temporary, bubble-type structures that have provided emergency space on the center grounds.

The expansion is expected to be considered next week by the City Council’s Finance and Revenue Committee, with the council to consider the action later. The move would also have to win Bradley’s approval.

The 21-member committee was chaired by Kyhl S. Smeby, executive vice president of the Bank of America.