LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Five years since the grand opening of the JW Marriott L.A. LIVE, Los Angeles, plans were announced by AEG to develop a 755-room expansion of the hotel creating the west coast’s premier meeting and conference destination.
The new project together with the existing JW Marriott L.A. LIVE and The Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles will contain 1,756 rooms and over 200,000 sf. of function space, making it the second largest hotel in California.
“AEG’s continued investment in our downtown will further the momentum created by the development of STAPLES Center and L.A. LIVE,” said Herb Wesson, President of the Los Angeles City Council. “The continuation of this enormously successful public-private partnership will signal the launch of the much anticipated renovation of the Convention Center while furthering Los Angeles’ international reputation and prominence.”
The new Gensler designed 38-story tower occupying a 60,000 sf. site at the northeast corner of Olympic Blvd. and Georgia Street will further expand group, business and leisure visitation to downtown Los Angeles.
Taking advantage of the proposed connecting links to the Los Angeles Convention Center, STAPLES Center and Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE, convention and hotel guests will have convenient access to the full range of amenities offered at L.A. LIVE including nineteen world-class restaurants, Regal Cinemas, Lucky Strike Lanes & Lounge, the GRAMMY Museum and its popular live sports and music venues. With this new investment, L.A. LIVE will be the nation’s most unique, most comprehensive, fully-linked and fully-integrated convention, leisure, entertainment and hospitality destination.
This latest project represents over $500M in additional investment by AEG in downtown Los Angeles and is projected to create more than 3,500 construction-related jobs and more than 500 full and part time jobs when the new tower opens.
The area’s transformation began with STAPLES Center’s 1999 opening and accelerated with the development of L.A. LIVE’s various components over the past decade, most recently culminating in the 2014 opening of the Courtyard by Marriott and Residence Inn properties.
The new hotel tower will be directly connected to the existing 878-room JW Marriott L.A. LIVE and 123-room Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles hotels by means of a bridge across Olympic Blvd. In addition to two levels of below grade parking and ground level retail space, a second floor amenity deck will include a restaurant, bar/lounge, fitness center; executive lounge and pool area with cabanas. The gross building area of the hotel including parking is almost 650,000 sf.
The announced development extends to the existing West Parking Garage “Event Deck”, where AEG will build additional meeting, conference, banquet and ballroom space to support the new JW Marriott L.A. LIVE hotel rooms. This new compliment of function space totaling over 75,000 sf. would be directly linked via two short bridges to the existing approximately 100,000 sf. of function space immediately to the north of the Event Deck. Combined with the project’s additional outdoor entertainment deck the development will deliver over 200,000 sf. of total convention and meeting space.
“When combined with all of the current offerings of L.A. LIVE, this new development will truly elevate the campus to become one of the preeminent meeting and convention destinations in the world,” said Ernest Wooden Jr., President & CEO of Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board. “Additional hotel inventory, especially around the Convention Center, is critically important to our ability to attract larger conventions and this 755-room expansion is a positive step forward to help ensure our inventory remains competitive."
AEG intends to proceed with this project as soon as it completes the necessary arrangements with the City and Marriott. Construction is currently contemplated to begin in late 2015 or early 2016, with the new hotel rooms and facilities scheduled to open in 2018.
–by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
