City Council Approves L.A. Convention Center Expansion and Modernization Project

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 22, 2025--

Today, the Los Angeles City Council voted to approve the L.A. Convention Center (LACC) Expansion and Modernization Project, underscoring the City’s commitment to maintaining its status as a world-class destination with a thriving tourism industry. This public infrastructure investment will create more than 15,000 jobs, add $652 million in General Fund tax revenue over 30 years and draw in over $150 million in additional visitor spending each year. View a video with renderings of the project here and download images and the video here.

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This project will spur much-needed economic growth in the region. Local businesses, especially in Downtown L.A., are dependent on direct and indirect spending from the LACC. This vote immediately helps local hotels as new bookings for the LACC will be confirmed for the upgraded space. It signals to investors, developers, local businesses and major industries that the City is committed to building a more prosperous future as a global leader and the chosen destination for organizations and associations to convene.

“I want to thank the Mayor and the City Council for their bold leadership and commitment to this legacy project that will make the Convention Center a premier destination for decades to come,” said Doane Liu, Chief Tourism Officer and Executive Director of the L.A. City Tourism Department. “This decision is the result of years of work with our City leaders and departments, and I’m proud of the tremendous effort put into this project. When the City of Los Angeles locks arms and shares a vision, we can successfully complete complex projects that make a positive lasting impact for Angelenos.”

Los Angeles has been at a competitive disadvantage in attracting large, citywide conventions due to the lack of contiguous space, especially as competitors have completed or are in the process of completing major expansions. The new construction will connect the two existing South and West Exhibit Halls by adding 190,000 square feet of space to create one contiguous hall with over 750,000 square feet, and will add 39,000 square feet of new meeting room space and 95,000 square feet of multipurpose space.

“An expanded and modernized Convention Center will transform the landscape of Downtown Los Angeles for following generations,” said Kimberly Weedmark, General Manager of the LA Convention Center. “We appreciate the LA City Council for their future facing vision, as this project will allow us to increase the number of top-tier programs that we welcome to Los Angeles, while granting our current clients continued growth opportunities. We are profoundly grateful to the teams at AEG, Plenary Group, Webcor, PCL and Populous, whose collaboration continues to set a new standard for excellence in the convention industry, and we look forward to the continued partnership as we move forward with the execution of the construction of the project. This is an incredibly exciting time for Los Angeles!”

“On behalf of the entire team at Los Angeles Tourism, we are incredibly grateful that the City Council has voted to advance the modernization of the Los Angeles Convention Center,” said Adam Burke, President & CEO, Los Angeles Tourism. “As one of the most powerful yet often unseen drivers of LA’s tourism economy, meetings and events generate billions of dollars annually for Los Angeles. They not only support the City’s General Fund and help fund essential services for all Angelenos, but also sustain local businesses across the greater Los Angeles region. As we look ahead to historic years on the horizon, and as the global spotlight on Los Angeles intensifies, we know the Los Angeles Convention Center will play an even more vital role in shaping our city’s future while continuing to welcome guests from around the globe.”

ABOUT LOS ANGELES CITY TOURISM DEPARTMENT

The Los Angeles City Tourism Department (CTD) advances tourism policies and strategies to increase the competitiveness of Los Angeles as a premier convention and tourist destination. The department oversees two public-private partnerships – with the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board (Los Angeles Tourism) and Legends Global – and works to help the City maximize the economic benefits derived from out-of-town visitors whose spending contributes to the growth of the local economy. View more tourism.lacity.gov.

ABOUT LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTER

The Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) is renowned internationally as a prime site for conventions, trade shows, and exhibitions. Owned by the City of Los Angeles and professionally managed by Legends Global, the LACC attracts over 2.5 million visitors annually. The facility is an integral economic component to the Southern California area, generating economic benefits through attendee direct and indirect spending and sustaining over 12,500 local jobs. The LACC also remains an enduring symbol of environmental sustainability and social responsibility and is proud to be a LEED® Gold certified facility. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn. For more information, please visit laconventioncenter.com.

ABOUT LOS ANGELES TOURISM & CONVENTION BOARD

Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board (Los Angeles Tourism) is the official, non-profit tourism promotion organization for the City of Los Angeles, and the ultimate resource for where to stay and play in the LA area. With its mission to improve the quality of life for all Angelenos through the economic and community benefits of tourism, Los Angeles Tourism is proud to represent over 1,000 Member businesses across the region who depend on travel and tourism for their livelihoods, including over 540,000 residents who work in tourism-related careers. For more information, visit discoverlosangeles.com, follow at facebook.com/DiscoverLosAngeles, or @discoverLA on X, Instagram and TikTok.

Los Angeles Convention Center Modernization & Expansion Project Rendering. Credit: Populous.

CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Young athletes in northern Ukraine spend their days cross-country skiing through a scorched forest, focused on their form — until a siren inevitably shatters the silence.

They respond swiftly but without panic, ditching their skis and following coaches to an underground bomb shelter.

It’s an ordinary training session at the complex that produced Ukraine’s first Olympic medalist.

Sleeping children no longer dream of Olympic glory in the facility's bombed-out dormitories, and unexploded ordnance has rendered nearby land off limits. But about 350 kids and teens — some of the nation's best young cross-country skiers and biathletes — still practice in fenced-off areas amid the sporadic buzz of drones passing overhead then explosions as they're shot down.

“We have adapted so well — even the children — that sometimes we don’t even react,” Mykola Vorchak, a 67-year-old coach, told The Associated Press in an interview on Oct. 31. “Although it goes against safety rules, the children have been hardened by the war. Adapting to this has changed them psychologically.”

War has taken a heavy toll on Ukrainian sport. Athletes were displaced or called up to fight. Soccer matches are often interrupted by air raid sirens so attendance is capped by bomb shelter capacity. Elite skaters, skiers and biathletes usually train abroad, with attacks and frequent blackouts shuttering local facilities.

But the government-run Sports Ski Base of the Olympic Reserve is open for cross-country skiing and biathlon, the event which combines skiing with shooting. The sprawling complex is on the outskirts of Chernihiv, a city two hours north of Kyiv along the path of destruction Russia's army left in its 2022 attempt to capture the capital. Chernihiv remains a regular target for air attacks aimed at the power grid and civilian infrastructure.

Several temporary structures at the sports center serve as changing rooms, toilets and coaches’ offices. Athletes train on snowy trails during the winter and, throughout the rest of the year, use roller skis on an asphalt track pocked by blast marks.

Biathletes aim laser rifles at electronic targets and, between shooting drills, sling skis over their shoulders and jog back to the start of the course, cheeks flushed from the cold.

Valentyna Tserbe-Nesina spent her adolescence at the Chernihiv center performing these same drills, and won bronze at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer. It was Ukraine’s first Olympic medal as an independent country.

“The conditions weren’t great, but we had nothing better. And for us, it was like a family — our own little home,” she said inside her apartment, its shelves and walls lined with medals, trophies and souvenirs from competitions around the world.

Tserbe-Nesina, 56, was shocked when she visited the complex in 2022. Shelling had torn through buildings, fire had consumed others. Shattered glass littered the floors of rooms where she and friends once excitedly checked taped-up results sheets.

“I went inside, up to my old room on the second floor. It was gone — no windows, nothing,” she said. “I recorded a video and found the trophies we had left at the base. They were completely burned.”

Tserbe-Nesina has been volunteering to organize funerals for fallen Ukrainian soldiers in her hometown while her husband, a retired military officer, returned to the front. They see each other about once a year, whenever his unit allows him brief leave.

One adult who in 2022 completed a tour in a territorial defense unit of Ukraine’s army sometimes trains today alongside the center's youngsters. Khrystyna Dmytrenko, 26, will represent her country at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that start Feb. 6.

“Sports can show that Ukraine is strong,” Dmytrenko said in an interview next to the shooting range. “We represent Ukraine on the international stage, letting other countries, athletes and nations see our unity, strength and determination.”

The International Olympic Committee imposed bans and restrictions on Russian athletes after the invasion of Ukraine, effectively extending earlier sanctions tied to state‑sponsored doping. But a small group of them will participate in the upcoming Winter Games.

After vetting to ensure no military affiliation, they must compete without displaying any national symbols — and only in non-team events. That means Russian and Ukrainian athletes could face one another in some skating and skiing events. Moscow’s appeal at the federation level to allow its biathletes to compete is pending.

That's why many Ukrainians view training for these events as an act of defiance. Former Olympic biathlete Nina Lemesh, 52, noted that some young Ukrainians who first picked up rifles and skis at the Chernihiv ski base during wartime have become international champions in their age groups.

“Fortunately, Ukrainians remain here. They always will,” she said, standing beside the destroyed dormitories. “This is the next generation of Olympians.”

AP writer Derek Gatopoulos in Kyiv contributed to this report.

A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Biathlete Khrystyna Dmytrenko poses for photos outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Biathletes Mykola Dorofeiev, 16, and Nazar Kravchenko, 12, left, train at the ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Biathlete Khrystyna Dmytrenko poses for photos inside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)