Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment District
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The Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment District, (also popularly called Times Square West, and L.A. Live) is a civic center currently under development and construction in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Adjacent to the Staples Center (home of the Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Sparks, and Avengers sports teams), the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment District is slated to cost approximately USD $1 billion to be paid by owner Anschutz Entertainment Group with help from Los Angeles taxpayers. It will feature six city blocks of apartments, ballrooms, bars, concert theaters, condominiums, restaurants, movie theaters and a hotel.
Architects and designers were inspired to create a district featuring the same amount of flashiness prominent at Times Square in New York City and the Ginza District of Tokyo. Construction began on 15 September 2005. The district is expected to revive Downtown Los Angeles and help it compete with San Diego and San Francisco for convention center business.
The multi-faceted entertainment destination will feature entertainment venues, restaurants, retail commercial and residential spaces, television and radio broadcast studios, and concert spaces. Highlights of the district will include a five star 1,000 room convention center headquarters hotel known as The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, a 40,000 ft² outdoor plaza, an ESPN broadcast and restaurant facility, Regal Theatres, as well as Club Nokia, the Nokia Theatre Los Angeles, and Nokia Plaza.
The centerpiece of the district will be The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, a 54 story, 1,000 room hotel constructed in the parking lot directly north of the Staples Center. The hotel is expected to bring the Los Angeles Convention Center a significant increase of reservations, mainly due to the solution of the existing problem of a lack of nearby hotels to serve convention visitors. The Hotel was delayed for a time, but local homebuilder KB Home recently signed an agreement to help build the hotel, thus construction has also begun on the hotel. The first phase will contain the Nokia Theatre, the Nokia Plaza, a retail plaza, as well as an underground parking garage, holding a fraction of the project's expected total of 4,000 parking spaces.
Nokia Theatre Los Angeles will be a premier mid-sized music and theatre venue featuring state-of-the-art acoustics and seating for 7,000. The Theatre will host the Latin Grammy Awards and ESPY Awards, as well as numerous other productions from VH1, MTV, and BET. It is also available for corporate shareholder meetings, product launches, and seminars. Club Nokia will be a club for live music and cultural events. The stand-alone club, which will accommodate up to 2,400 patrons, will feature up and coming music acts, bands, and cultural shows. The club may also be used to host private parties and corporate events. Nokia Plaza will a 40,000 ft² open-air plaza that will serve as the central meeting place for Los Angeles' Sports and Entertainment District. The Plaza will serve as one of the district's key anchors, providing a broadcast venue featuring giant LED screens as well as a red carpet site for special events. The Nokia venues will be part of the "Nokia Unwired" marketing platform, which will bring live music to fans in both the Nokia venues and through "Nokia Presents Hard Rock Live" on MTV.
This project will move the downtown sky line and center of activity further South.
