Denver Post - May 12, 2007 

Anschutz forges glittering
L.A. empire

By Tom McGhee

enver investor Philip Anschutz's home remains in Denver, and the neon blue sign identifying Qwest, the company he founded, still dominates the skyline.

But much of the tycoon's empire is now in Los Angeles.

Anschutz has cobbled together an entertainment conglomerate that includes sports teams, venues, concert promotion, the world's largest theater chain, and movie production companies.

Anschutz's footprint in Tinseltown has been growing since the mid-1990s.

Last year, the Los Angeles Times ranked him the sixth most powerful person in Southern California, right behind the leader of 5 million Roman Catholics, Cardinal Roger Mahony, head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

"Southern California has more than its share of absentee landlords. Few, however, have had as much impact as Anschutz," the newspaper said.

His $400 million Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, is helping to revive the city's downtown. And through his sports and entertainment company, AEG Worldwide, he is developing a $2 billion entertainment and sports district nearby.

He developed and owns the $150 million Home Depot Center in nearby Carson City, where his Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team plays; has a share in the Lakers; and owns the L.A. Kings hockey team and two other major league soccer teams.

Anschutz has long been a pioneer for American professional soccer. AEG recently signed glam British soccer star David Beckham to a five-year deal with the Galaxy, adding another high-profile celebrity to the city's tax rolls.

Anschutz also built a 130-mile pipeline that transports oil from the San Joaquin Valley to refineries and terminal facilities in the Los Angeles Basin.

"He has made a huge investment in this community in infrastructure, in entertainment and in sports, and those three drive our economy," said L.A. developer Steve Soboroff, a former adviser to ex-Mayor Richard Riordan, who worked with Anschutz on the Staples Center and other projects.

Anschutz, who made his fortune in oil, gas, telecommunications, real estate and other ventures, runs his global enterprise from an office tower on 17th Street in Denver. He is a substantial benefactor to Colorado charities. His AEG Live opened a Denver office last year, operates the Ogden and Bluebird theaters and books venues in Denver and elsewhere. His in-theater advertising company, National CineMedia, is based in Centennial.

"Investments are made where opportunities exist that fit one's business plans or philosophy," said Anschutz spokesman Jim Monaghan.

Anschutz has cut his stake in two high-profile Denver companies, selling off virtually all his Qwest holdings and a substantial share in Forest Oil. And in 2003, he sold the rights to the Colorado Rapids to Stan Kroenke, owner of the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets.

Purchased L.A. Kings in 1995

Anschutz first made a splash in Southern California's sporting world when he and real-estate investor Ed Roski Jr. purchased the bankrupt L.A. Kings hockey team in 1995.

It wasn't long before he revived an idea that had fallen flat in Denver in 1987, when he was competing to develop a convention center on railroad land he owned in the Central Platte Valley. That proposal included an entertainment district with a $20 million amusement park, a hotel and other improvements.

"Am I crazy?" he said in pitching the 1987 plan. "My opponents say I am, but I disagree. I see here a tremendous opportunity for a fantastic place waiting to happen."

He lost that bid, but 10 years later he got approval to build the Staples Center in Los Angeles' moribund downtown. The deal with the city gave him control of 30 acres near the Staples site where AEG is building LA Live, an entertainment district.

The Staples Center, which draws nearly 4 million customers a year, contributed to a 30 percent increase in the number of visitors to downtown L.A. between 2003 and 2005, according to a study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

"There is no question that Staples was transformative. I look at downtown and I refer to it as BSC and ASC - Before Staples Center and After Staples Center," said Carol Schatz, president of the Los Angeles Downtown Center Business Improvement District.

LA Live will include theaters, restaurants, retail, commercial and residential space, and a convention-center hotel that will be part Marriott, part Ritz Carlton and have condominiums on the top floors.

"It is really going to anchor the southern portion of the downtown area, which used to be covered with parking lots," said Nancy Sidhu, senior economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

Hotel tax rebates fuel anger

The 54-story hotel will put the city's downtown convention center in the running for business that now goes elsewhere, said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the development corporation.

But the up-to-$290 million in hotel tax rebates that the Los Angeles City Council approved for the property last year drew the ire of many Angelenos.

Joel Kotkin, author of "The City: A Global History," was one of those who opposed the tax breaks.

"The whole LA Live is an absurdity for a city like LA that has a huge, and unsubsidized, entertainment industry. Stuff like ESPN Zone and other packaged entertainment is not necessary for a city like ours. If you are bored in L.A., get another life," he said in an e-mail response to a query.

AEG owns, operates or acts as booking agent for venues across the country and in Europe.

While Anschutz wields the power, "he is not visible operating the levers" in L.A., Kyser said. The public face of privately held AEG is Timothy J. Leiweke.

Anschutz also owns Regal Entertainment, the world's largest movie chain, a holding that gives him clout in in Hollywood, said Dan Glickman, chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, a trade organization of major American film companies.

"He is a very big force within the theater-owners organization, and they have a very powerful relationship with the studios and other filmmakers because that is where the product is distributed," Glickman said.

Launched film company in 2000

In 2000, Anschutz, a conservative Christian, branched into film, forming production company Crusader Entertainment, later renamed Bristol Bay Productions. The following year he launched Walden Media. Both companies specialize in family fare, with movies such as "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," based on a children's book by Oxford scholar and Christian writer C.S. Lewis, and "Around the World in 80 Days."

"Phil is very much involved in the whole family-format film movement, so we have talked a lot about the need to make more family entertainment," Glickman said.

Anschutz is a force to be reckoned with in a city where the entertainment industry rules, said Schatz. "He leaves a huge imprint in the whole entertainment arena. L.A. is the entertainment capital of the world; if you are big in L.A., you are big in the world," said Schatz.

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