On Wednesday, officials broke ground on the expansion of the L.A. Convention Center.
It comes a couple of weeks after Mayor Karen Bass gave her final approval to the project.
Bass, along with several city council members and labor leaders, was in attendance. Veronica Perez, a consultant who has worked on getting approval for the project, told KNX News’ Jon Baird that everyone came together to get this project done.
“It was a coalition of people from labor and business and the community who came together because everyone, and these are folks that oftentimes are on opposite sides of the table,” she said.
Nella McOsker, president and CEO of Central City Association of Los Angeles, said it was time to invest in a convention center that can “host the biggest and brightest conventions across the globe.”
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“We literally have been turning away the biggest conventions because we couldn't accommodate them in this space,” she said. “So the energy and investment that this provides the downtown business community is tremendous.”
During the ceremony, Councilmember Curren Price suffered a medical emergency and had to be taken to the hospital. Baird reported that Price was conscious and sitting up as they rolled him to the ambulance.
The expansion project won’t be completely finished before the 2028 Olympics, but it is expected to host some Olympic events.
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