When Westside Today caught up with Tim Leiweke, we were taken by his enthusiasm and his passion. He is a man who genuinely loves what he does; his excitement about what his company brings to Los Angeles is truly infectious. He heads more than 90 separate companies with 15,000 employees throughout the world.
The Brentwood resident is a busy guy. Leiweke is the president and CEO of Los Angeles-based AEG, the world’s biggest investor in and developer of entertainment and sports facilities, events, teams and more. The company owns and operates the STAPLES Center and The Home Depot Center, among numerous other arenas worldwide; included among its sports franchises are the Los Angeles Kings, the Los Angeles Galaxy and a big chunk of the Lakers.
Westside Today: The hot project on the immediate horizon for AEG is L.A. Live – what was the thinking behind that project?
Tim Leiweke: L.A. Live is a vision we had from day one, 12 years ago. Los Angeles is the content capital, and we wanted to create a content campus with the STAPLES center and the district around it, including the Los Angeles Convention Center. We have no Times Square here in L.A. Name one interactive studio – we don’t have it. We are creating a real destination, a one-stop shopping, self-contained 100-acre campus that can host the biggest events, trade shows, conventions, premieres, award shows and more.
WT: What are some of the key elements of L.A. Live?
Leiweke: The STAPLES Center is a juggernaut, with 300 events per year, bringing four million people to the campus. We’ve added the Nokia Theatre, a 7100-square-foot facility which will host 150 events per year, including all the awards shows in Los Angeles except for the Academy Awards, which will stay at the Kodak Theatre. We are also opening Club Nokia, a stand-alone club that will hold 2200 people and host live music and cultural events. So artists can play at Club Nokia, the Nokia Theatre or the STAPLES Center – three different size venues. We’re also bringing in a lot of fantastic restaurants from around the world.
WT: There’s also a huge hotel…
Leiweke: The 1000-room Ritz-Carlton/ JW Marriott (it’s so big, it took two hotels!) convention hotel will be 54 stories high, making it one of the most significant hotel buildings in the world. The hotel will open in early 2010. 600,000 new hotel rooms have already been pre-booked. The building also includes 224 high-end condominiums, “The Ritz-Carlton Residences at L.A. Live†– 150 of those were already sold by word of mouth before we even opened the sales office.
WT: When will it all be open?
Leiweke: The restaurants are opening in October and the rest of L.A. Live, except the hotel, will be open by December.
WT: Do you expect to take conventions and trade shows away from other venues?
Leiweke: It’s already happening. We already have 60 new conventions booked from 2010 on.
WT: Well L.A. Live sounds great for downtown Los Angeles, but how will it impact the Westside?
Leiweke: I have lived on the Westside throughout my entire Los Angeles career, so I can speak to that pretty well. Look, we know that Los Angeles is a city of cities, a community of communities. When you are thinking about going to a movie or out to dinner on Friday night, you generally look to the theatres and restaurants right in your area – that’s the reality of massive urban sprawl. But when it comes to big events, sports teams, public celebrations, a place to take your guests, a place that drives the economy of the entire city, you can’t recreate L.A. Live. There’s no place like it in the world. It will be the largest single driver of business and event tourism in all of Southern California, bringing billions of dollars into the area.
Our Southern California economy relies heavily on tourism, but we have really been a nonexistent player when it comes to big events and conventions – we actually fall behind Omaha when it comes to convention business. That will change. And we know that many tourists stay on the Westside even if they visit downtown. It’s not just about the 600,000 rooms that have been pre-booked at the new Ritz. There will be millions of tourists and rooms booked all over town, including the Westside.
Plus, L.A. Live will be a day-to-day destination for the 18 million residents of California for big events. This will be the place to come and bring your guests.
WT: You can already hear people groaning about increased traffic…
Leiweke: When I hear people worry about traffic, I ask them if they have ever traveled on Sunset at 5p.m. between Pacific Palisades and the 405. That’s far worse, and takes longer than driving from Pacific Palisades to downtown at that same time on the 10!
But more importantly, our project will actually take cars off the roads. Right now, about 450,000 people work in downtown, but less than 10,000 people live there. After our project is done, more than 100,000 people will live and work in downtown; their cars will be off the freeway. Certainly from that perspective, it’s always better to build up than out.
WT: You develop new facilities and venues, manage sports teams, oversee events – you even helped Celine Dion put together her amazing Las Vegas Show. So what’s your favorite part?
Leiweke: My wife and daughter. We love life on the Westside. My daughter went to Brentwood [School]. My wife is involved in many Brentwood events and charities, as am I. We are very involved in the community.
As far as the company goes, I am really enjoying our music division, the second largest entertainment company in the world. If you go see Bon Jovi, Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey, or Hannah Montana, those are AEG events.
