With tickets sold out and limousines at the ready, the Nokia Theatre threw open its doors Thursday night with performances by the Eagles and the Dixie Chicks.
But it's the performance of the theater itself that has planners and city leaders holding their breath.
The 7,100 seat venue -- combined with Staples Center and the Music Center complex -- positions downtown Los Angeles to be the region's leader in big-ticket live entertainment. Planners and developers have bet some of downtown's future growth on high-rise towers built around these two entertainment hubs.
Amid the gala opening, however, there remains significant doubt among some urban planners over whether huge venues can actually help the surrounding sections of downtown grow and thrive.
The Nokia Theatre is the centerpiece of L.A. Live, a sprawling $1.7-billion development that will include nightclubs, restaurants, an ESPN broadcast center and a Ritz-Carlton hotel.
Downtown boosters are counting on the complex to help draw new residents and visitors to the growing community of lofts and condos rising to the north and east.
In the same way, they are banking on the lure of the Music Center and Museum of Contemporary Art to generate interest in the $2-billion, Frank Gehry-designed shopping, office and high-rise condo complex set to be built on the north side of downtown.
"Downtown Los Angeles used to be a place you pointed to when you were in the hills: 'There it is, those big buildings. No reason to go down there,' " said Don Henley, the drummer who shares lead singing duties in the Eagles, as he prepared backstage for Thursday's performance. "What's going on now, here, is very interesting. You're seeing downtown matter in new ways."
Fans may drive downtown for the Eagles, Kobe Bryant and shows like "Avenue Q" -- but will they want to live near these large venues or even stay and walk around to experience other parts of downtown?
"If you put the Eagles in my backyard, people would come," said a skeptical Joel Kotkin, a presidential fellow at Chapman University who has written extensively about Los Angeles' urban life. "The Forum was in Inglewood. Did that make Inglewood the center of the music scene?"
Until now, much of the revitalization of downtown L.A. has occurred organically -- with the conversion of historic buildings, old warehouses and postwar office towers into high-end condos and lofts. But downtown is seeing a boom in new residential construction, fueled by development in and around the city center's two entertainment hubs.
