Governor’s pen moves Farmers Field closer to construction
Thousands of temporary and permanent jobs projected
Farmers Field got punted onto the fast track recently, as Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would help speed construction of the much-ballyhooed football stadium
Brown signed SB 292 at a press conference and signing ceremony Tuesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The bill, SB 292, will hurry the construction of Farmers Field, which is being financed by developer Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and is scheduled to open by 2016. The bill also includes renovation of the Convention Center’s West Hall.
“This is a big step forward for our economic recovery,” said Assembly member Steven C. Bradford (D-Gardena), a co-author of SB 292. “We’re going to put a lot of people to work at a time when people need jobs.”
Economic analyses of the stadium proposal by both AEG and the city of Los Angeles suggest that as many as 12,000 temporary and permanent jobs may result from construction and operation of the stadium.
The $1.3 billion deal, which does not rely on any taxpayer dollars, also includes renovation of the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The governor also signed AB 900, a companion jobs bill that is modeled after SB 292. It will fast-track other large project proposals in order to bring jobs to the state as quickly as possible.
The project is supported by the Environmental Resources Defense Council, the California League of Conservation Voters, and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.
“Today we showed how to bring competing interests together for the good of the state,” Bradford continued. “This project is a model of collaboration and partnership.”
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A proposed NFL football stadium in downtown Los Angeles would be dubbed Farmers Field under a naming-rights agreement announced today by AEG, the Staples Center operators who hope to bring professional football to downtown Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the creation of a "blue-ribbon commission'' to analyze the downtown stadium proposal.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today credited his efforts to streamline the city’s development permitting process with Farmers Insurance deciding to move one of its offices and 1,200 jobs to Los Angeles from Simi Valley.
At West Angeles Church of God in Christ a passionate Tim Leiweke took off his coat, threw it aside and tore into his subject.
Bishop Charles E. Blake, the pastor, sat on the front row in the church’s Crystal Room, and it’s possible he thought Leiweke had missed his calling.
The fire and the fervor were there, and so was a packed house of believers.
What had gotten the man of AEG so fired up? Was it football? Was it Farmers Field?
No, said Leiweke, president and chief executive of the entertainment conglomerate.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Angelenos will get their first chance Wednesday to weigh-in on the $1 billion football stadium a developer is willing to build in exchange for the city making about $350 million in changes to the Convention Center.
An informal Planning Department hearing, open to the public, is set from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Room 501 in the Convention Center's West Hall, which would be torn down to accommodate construction.
There has been a buzz going through the city of Los Angeles, a perception that the National Football League is closer to returning here after the Rams and Raiders both bolted for sweeter land and stadium deals.
In the various discussions about the proposed stadium/event center that AEG, a subsidy development entity under the Anschutz Co., wants to construct in downtown Los Angeles, it is not enough to declare, “If you build it, they will come.”
