Los Angeles – Negotiations for a 56-story downtown hotel designed to boost the ailing Los Angeles Convention Center have broken down, despite a quarter-billion-dollar public-financing package.
Apollo Real Estate Advisors of Century City was expected to provide about $60 million for the 1,100-room Hilton hotel but has pulled out of the talks, according to City Councilwoman Jan Perry and sources close to the negotiations.
The hotel has been touted as a linchpin in ensuring the success of the $4.2 billion sports and entertainment complex that recently broke ground next to the Staples Center.
But the deal involving Apollo and co-developer Wolff Urban Development, which wasn’t providing equity, has appeared strained for several months as hotel construction costs soared from roughly $450 million to more than $500 million.
Perry said Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz – owner of AEG, which owns the Staples Center and is investing $1 billion in the complex under development – is looking for new equity partners.
