Convention Center Chief Backs Arena Plan

Contradicting previous memos in which he raised numerous concerns about the impact on his clients of a proposal to build a hockey and basketball arena in downtown, the general manager of the Los Angeles Convention Center has written Mayor Richard Riordan to say he does not oppose the project.

“I am fully supportive,” Convention Center Director Dick Walsh wrote to Riordan.

Walsh said in the memo that his earlier missives to city staff members--in which he said the Convention Center could lose up to $1.5 million if the center’s North Hall were torn down to make way for the arena, and raised questions about competition for parking space between convention and arena crowds--were simply a fulfillment of his “‘professional responsibility.”

He added that he wrote the original memos so the concerns would be documented and dealt with during negotiations with the owners of the Los Angeles Kings, who would sponsor the $230-million project.

Steve Sugerman, Riordan’s assistant chief of staff, City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie and Stephen Wong of the chief legislative analyst’s office said the issues Walsh raised in his earlier memos remain on the table in talks with the developers. Although the City Council has voted 11 to 1 to approve the project in concept, the details have yet to be hammered out and a final vote on the project has not been scheduled.

Also on Thursday, a group of ethnic business organizations endorsed the project as a “much-needed investment in the local economy.”