JW Marriott L.A. Live to Add 755-room Tower
March 5, 2015
Just five years since the grand opening of the JW Marriott L.A. Live, Los Angeles, plans were announced March 5 by AEG to develop a 755-room expansion of the hotel. Combined, the new project together with the existing JW Marriott L.A. Live and The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles will contain 1,756 rooms and more than 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.”
Destined to solidify L.A. Live’s position as the dominant hospitality, leisure and entertainment destination in Los Angeles, 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 19 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.
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 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 function space totaling more than 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 more than 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 and 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.”
Construction is expected to begin in late 2015 or early 2016, with the new hotel rooms and facilities scheduled to open in 2018.