Council backs digital ad signs for Convention Center area

Revenue would help pay for renovations, possibly in time for the 2028 Olympics.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to allow large-scale digital signs on the city-owned Convention Center in downtown L.A., a plan embraced by politicians eager for new revenue streams and opposed by foes of the blinking displays.

Under the ordinance, bright digital signs and other types of advertisements could rise inside and outside the Convention Center. The displays would be allowed in a 68-acre site bounded by Chick Hearn Court, Figueroa Street, Venice Boulevard and the 110 Freeway.

The council voted unanimously to support the sign district proposal and it passed without discussion. Councilmembers Curren Price, Nithya Raman and Monica Rodriguez were absent.

The vote follows the council’s approval last week of more than 70 digital billboards across L.A. as part of a revenue-sharing agreement with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The new ordinance for the Convention Center allows animated digital signage along Figueroa Street and Chick Hearn Court, as well as digital signage with non-moving images along the back of the Convention Center facing the 110 Freeway, according to the city’s Planning Department.

City rules already allow digital displays on the Convention Center, but the new sign district will allow “offsite” signs — images that advertise products not sold on the immediate property, officials said.

Money raised by the digital signs on the Convention Center will help pay for renovations to the center, city officials said.

Doane Liu, the city’s chief tourism officer, told The Times that one estimate predicted $14.8 million in annual revenue from the signage. He didn’t provide details about when the estimate was completed or who performed it.

Price, whose district includes the Convention Center and L.A. Live, expressed support for the signs in a Dec. 5 letter to the city’s Planning and Land Use Commission.

“The new sign district will allow us to receive enough revenue to complete the future renovations and expansion of the Los Angeles Convention Center prior to the 2028 Olympics,” he wrote.

Price’s letter references a separate city initiative to potentially overhaul the Convention Center in time for the 2028 Games. Costs remain an issue, however, and city leaders haven’t made a decision on a renovation.

Either way, table tennis and other sports may be played at the Convention Center during the 2028 Olympics, according to city officials.

More broadly, city leaders want to make L.A. competitive with other major cities that draw big conventions, and bring in more tourism dollars.

Angelina Valencia, a Price representative, said the value of digital signs at the Convention Center hasn’t been assessed.

Barbara Broide, co-president of the Coalition for a Beautiful Los Angeles, called the proposed signage a “terrible visual assault for Angelenos.”

“It is a dangerous distraction for those who need to be watching the road,” Broide said.

Historical preservation expert Kim Cooper also expressed concern over driver safety and light pollution for surrounding neighborhoods. “There’s a potential impact on mental health and sleep,” Cooper said.

Liu, the city’s chief tourism officer, said that convention customers have been clamoring for the signs. He said that digital displays on the outside of the Convention Center could be used in a variety of ways, including to advertise medical scrubs, for instance, at a nursing convention.

He also pointed to the large-scale blinking displays that some downtown developers have sought from the city for their residential buildings. “It’s only right” that the Convention Center should also have digital billboards, he said.