Mayor Karen Bass announced the Los Angeles Convention Center expansion will bring 189,000 visitors and $400 million in economic impact once complete in 2029.

The project carries a price tag that has become a flashpoint in the Nov. 3 mayoral runoff between Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman. Originally estimated at $470 million in 2015, the financing plan approved in 2025 calls for $2.68 billion in borrowing and $5.39 billion in total debt service, according to Our Weekly. Raman's statement referenced a "$5.9 billion financing plan," though both Our Weekly reports cite $5.39 billion in total debt service based on the approved plan.

Bass said in a statement that the project has created thousands of union jobs and paid almost $10 million in wages. The city said 18 major conferences have committed to holding annual events in Los Angeles since construction began about a year ago, Our Weekly reported.

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and council members Curren Price and Ysabel Jurado backed the expansion.

"There will always be people who find a reason to say no, but delay was costing this city jobs, revenue and opportunity," Price said, according to Our Weekly.

Raman, who voted against the project alongside Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, called it a "refurbishment boondoggle." She said in a statement that the project "will cause $100 million in cuts to city services every year, leaving more broken streets, dark streetlights and slower 9-1-1 response times across every neighborhood in our city."

Raman's campaign has framed the annual General Fund cost as money that could instead fund roughly 625 firefighter and paramedic positions, repair more than 1.3 million square feet of sidewalk or maintain nearly 176,000 streetlights for a year, according to an Our Weekly report on Raman's Sept. 10 endorsement event.

Bloomberg Law reported that the city's $1.8 billion bond sale for the expansion has been delayed because of market conditions. The bonds had no set pricing date as of Sept. 28, Our Weekly reported.

Alex Stack, spokesman for Bass's campaign, said in a Sept. 11 statement responding to Raman's campaign event that the convention center "is something that was agreed upon by business, labor, community groups and just about all of her colleagues."

Cassandra Horton, co-founder of the DTLA Residents Association, said in a September interview with City News Service that her group voted in 2025 to support the expansion. She described it as a big investment in downtown with the potential to reverberate across the city.

"I think it's fair for people to ask questions about how the city's money is being spent," Horton said at the time. "Our hope … is to certainly benefit for the neighborhood, but for the whole city too."

The expansion will connect the South and West Exhibit Halls above Pico Boulevard, adding 190,000 square feet of exhibit space and nearly 40,000 square feet of meeting rooms. Construction will pause for the 2028 Olympic Games, then resume through completion as soon as 2029.

The Nov. 3 runoff is the first time a sitting Los Angeles mayor has faced a general-election runoff since 2005. Bass advanced with 34.3% of the vote in the June 2 primary.