Hotels For L.A. Live

KB Urban and Anschutz Entertainment Group have entered into a deal with hotel operator Marriott International to open two luxury hotel properties and condos at the $2.5 billion L.A. Live sports and entertainment district planned for downtown Los Angeles.

The 54-story, $750 million project could be one of the largest buildings in Los Angeles, and is scheduled to open in 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Marriott Hotel Services will be the exclusive hotel operator of the 876-room Los Angeles Marriott Marquis, which will be a main hotel for the city’s Convention Center. Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., a subsidiary of Marriott International, will run the 124-room Ritz-Carlton Hotel. It will be located on top of the Marriott Marquis.

“This is an extremely momentous agreement not only for L.A. Live but for the Los Angeles Convention Center and the City of Los Angeles as well,” AEG President/CEO Tim Leiweke said in a statement.

KB Urban, a unit of home builder KB Home, and AEG are co-developers of the approximately 2 million-square-foot property, which will be near the Staples Center and 7,100-seat Nokia Theatre Los Angeles, which should be completed by next year.

About 216 residential one- to four-bedroom condos will be built above the hotels. Ownership will include VIP access to events at the Staples Center, Nokia Theatre and Club Nokia, along with other events.

The project is being designed by San Francisco-based architecture firm Gensler.

The 4 million-square-foot project is an effort to revitalize Los Angeles as a home for conventions and similar tourism. Along with the Nokia Theatre and Club Nokia, a Regal Cinema Cineplex, restaurants, cafes, nightclubs and a Grammy museum to showcase the history of music will be featured.