L.A. Convention Center to Get Major Hotel Tower: The complex would give downtown the magnet for business conferences it has lacked for years.

The project, scheduled to open in 2010, would anchor L.A. Live, the 27-acre sports-entertainment complex considered
the linchpin of downtown's redevelopment. It has taken two decades to land a major convention hotel, but the agreement
by Marriott International Inc. with local developers to operate two luxury inns in the same glitzy Las Vegas-style high-rise raises hopes for reestablishing the city center as a top tourist and convention magnet.
"All of this is really a wonderful story about the emergence — and reemergence — of downtown Los Angeles as a strong economic center and a strong weight to the region's economy," said Stuart Gabriel, a USC professor and director of its Lusk Center for Real Estate.