How about 2 smaller hotels next to Convention Center? CRA mulls alternative to constructing one big hotel.

The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency has expanded its push to get a hotel built near the newly expanded Los Angeles Convention Center.

According to staff members and commissioners on the CRA board, the agency is approaching several potential developers about the project, and is studying whether it might be easier to build two or more smaller properties rather than one big hotel.

In the past, city officials have always talked in terms of a Convention Center hotel with between 1,000 and 1,400 rooms. The largest hotel right now in Los Angeles County is the Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles, which has close to 1,400 rooms.

The commissioners and staff members also said there has been no decision on the future of a piece of CRA-owned property two blocks from the Convention Center that has been zoned for low- to moderate-income housing. The CRA commission has asked its staff to consider options on how that property could possibly be used in the construction of a Convention Center hotel.

The Convention Center, located on Figueroa Street about one mile south of downtown, was symbolically reopened this past November after a three-year, $500 million expansion project that was undertaken as the existing part of the structure remained in use.

The Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau has said that many groups will not book the facility unless there is a large, adjacent hotel. Currently, the nearest large hotels are in downtown Los Angeles.

Since 1988 there have been several attempts to develop a Convention Center hotel, all of which have failed for various reasons. The last serious attempt was in late 1990, when three developers submitted plans. The plans were all rejected by the CRA because the builders asked for public subsidies ranging up to $96 million on proposed projects that would have cost between $269 million and $303 million.

Don Spivack, the CRA's director of operations, said last week the agency has recently asked seven potential developers whether they would be interested in building a Convention Center hotel. Those developers include the three that submitted plans in late 1990 -- First Capital Decisions, Royce Development Co. and Obayashi America Corp.

Information on other potential developers was not immediately available last week.

Peggy Moore, vice chairman of the CRA commission, said the agency is willing to talk to any potential developer.

"We are realizing that there is a real need to get a headquarters hotel built. The Convention Center is now complete and open, so we are looking for a hotel operator. We are looking at all possibilities," she said.

Asked what the difference is this time, compared to previous efforts to get a hotel built near the center, Moore said: "The Convention Center is completed and we have a mayor (Richard Riordan) who is looking at the economic development of the city. And we have a commission that wants to do everything it can to assist him in those opportunities."

In terms of how much money the CRA would be willing to allocate in subsidies for construction of a hotel, Moore said the CRA board's economics committee is studying that matter. The CRA is a city agency that allocates government funds for development.

Spivack said an option being considered by the agency staff is whether it would be easier to finance construction of two or more smaller hotels.

He said there are currently three potential sites for a hotel that would be immediately adjacent to the center. Those sites include the corner of 11th Street and Figueroa, a parcel of land at Figueroa and Pico Boulevard, and property on the grounds of the Convention Center that is known as the North Hall site.

The property that is two blocks northeast of the center is bordered by Olympic Boulevard on the north, 11th Street on the south, Flower Street on the west and Hope Street on the east.

The agency is considering some sort of land swap involving that piece of property for a site closer to the Convention Center.

Spivack said last week that the land swap deal is still being considered, even though the Los Angeles City Council has specifically supported the zoning of the property for housing.