L.A. Live, the sprawling downtown sports and entertainment venue, has traded one of its star restaurants for three smaller eateries and, perhaps, a diner to be named later.
Sports bar and restaurant ESPN Zone L.A. Live was scheduled to close July 13 and be replaced by three restaurants from Consumer Concept Group, owner of national chain Smashburger. CCG has leased most of the 24,000-square-foot indoor-outdoor space that had been occupied by ESPN Zone.
The Denver company plans to open three restaurants in the massive space: Smashburger, a fast-casual made-to-order pizza place called Live Basil Pizza and a modern 24-hour restaurant called Tom’s Urban 24.
CCG co-founder Tom Ryan said he and business partner Rick Schaden were eager to test the latter two, which are newer concepts, at the high-profile site.
“We are big supporters of the resurgence of downtown Los Angeles,” he said. “We look for vital trade areas to open our restaurants, where people live, work and play, and downtown L.A. is clearly moving in that direction.”
Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns and operates the 4 million-square-foot L.A. Live complex, opened ESPN Zone there five years ago, licensing the restaurant brand from cable sports network ESPN’s corporate parent, Burbank’s Walt Disney Co.
Ted Tanner, senior vice president of real estate for AEG, said the entertainment giant shuttered ESPN Zone in order to bring fast-casual and late-night restaurants to the complex. He declined to comment on the L.A. Live restaurant’s financial performance, but said size factored into AEG’s decision to end its license and find a new tenant.
“The Zone, of course, was a very large space, and it tended to be quite segmented,” he said. “I think over time we just said we think we need to do more here for the campus.”
The expansive ESPN Zone, which could seat up to 700 people, served chicken wings, burgers and beer in four bars, two dining areas and a large game room. Dozens of big-screen TVs continuously played all manner of sporting events for guests, and the place often served to accommodate overflow from sporting events at the nearby Staples Center.
The closure might mark the end of the line for the sports-themed chain. Disney shuttered five of its six ESPN Zone locations – in Baltimore; Chicago; New York; Las Vegas; and Washington, D.C. – in 2010, leaving only the L.A. Live franchise and one company-owned store in Anaheim at Downtown Disney.
At the time, the company cited challenging economics for the closures.
Neither Disney nor ESPN returned requests for comment on the most recent change or the prospects for the sole remaining ESPN Zone restaurant.
Culver City restaurant consultant Jerry Prendergast said he was not surprised to learn of the restaurant’s fate.
“It was a disaster from day one,” he said. “It was poorly laid out, the food was bad, and the training and service were worse.”
The Smashburger chain, which opened locations in Culver City and Thousand Oaks earlier this year, operates nearly 220 restaurants in the United States, Canada, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. CCG has just one Tom’s Urban 24 restaurant and two Live Basil Pizza places, all in Denver.
At L.A. Live, Smashburger and Live Basil Pizza will each take up about 1,000 square feet of interior space with 800-square-foot outdoor patios. Tom’s Urban 24, with more than 9,500 square feet inside and 1,400 square feet outside, will be the largest of the three.
Tanner declined to disclose the terms of CCG’s three-restaurant lease, but did say AEG would be responsible for the construction necessary to divide the space into three separate restaurants. ESPN will hold on to some of the space on the second level to expand its production studios on the campus and the media company’s KSPN-AM (710) studio will not be affected.
“We’re not turning our back on the radio presence on our campus,” he said.
Tanner said AEG would begin construction immediately in order to open the restaurants as soon as possible.
“The goal is to have them open by the end of this year, hopefully for the beginning of the basketball season,” he said.
Further dining changes might be afoot at L.A. Live.
Emeryville restaurant chain Trader Vic’s may also be pulling up stakes. A restaurant industry insider said the Polynesian-themed purveyor of mai tais is looking to get out of its lease or negotiate terms with AEG.
Tanner would not comment on the chain’s desire to alter or end its lease other than to say, “At this point, that’s only an early consideration.”
