Park worked with the primary designer of the updated facility, architect James Ingo Freed, who also designed the acclaimed Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and was a longtime partner of architect I.M. Pei.
On Wednesday, council members emphasized that they had only approved the business agreement with AEG, and that issues regarding the size, location and features of the signs still must be reviewed by the city Planning Commission and, eventually, will come before the council for a separate vote.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, September 12, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 57 words Type of Material: Correction
Convention center signs: An article in Thursday's California section about a proposal by developer AEG to put billboards and electronic signs on the convention center in downtown Los Angeles said the company had already received $27 million in tax breaks to build the LA Live sports and entertainment center. AEG has received $270 million in tax breaks.
Councilwoman Janice Hahn said the agreement would help invigorate the sports-and- entertainment complex that AEG is developing around the convention center, including Staples Center and the Nokia Theatre, and attract tourists and residents downtown. The greatest benefit, however, would be the money it brings into the city coffers, she said.
"This is revenue we've never had before," Hahn said.
The council approved the agreement 12 to 1, with Councilman Bill Rosendahl casting the sole dissenting vote.
Rosendahl said he was worried that the deal was a taxpayer giveaway to AEG and said the city could possibly bring in more money if other companies were allowed to bid on a convention center signage contract.
Rosendahl also expressed concern that AEG already has benefited from a "sweetheart deal" with the city that granted the company $27 million in tax breaks to build LA Live.
"I don't think it's a great business deal for the city at all," Rosendahl said. "I think it's a great business deal for this private vendor."
Dennis Hathaway of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight told council members that their vote would undercut the city's effort to impose a moratorium on new outdoor advertising in Los Angeles because the city itself is ignoring it.
"If you do this, you're basically throwing the sign ban out the window," he said.
AEG and its executives have been major political donors to local politicians, giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to the mayor and his political committees, as well as contributions to more than two-thirds of the council members.
Under the agreement approved Wednesday, AEG will initially pay the city $2 million a year, increasing by 3% a year, for a decade.
The city also will get 25% of AEG's first $5 million in net profits on the signs; 50% of the profits on the next $5 million; and 75% of the profits on the next $5 million.
Gerry Miller, the city's chief legislative analyst, told the council that AEG was given exclusive rights to hang commercial signs on the convention center in 1998 as part of the Staples Center lease granted by the city. Because of that, other firms were not allowed to bid on the contract, he said.
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phil.willon@latimes.com
