The City Council voted Tuesday unanimously to authorize an exclusive negotiating agreement with concert giant AEG Presents and its Goldenvoice subsidiary to study whether the shuttered Santa Monica Civic Auditorium can be revived as a live entertainment venue, advancing a 17-year effort to reopen the landmark even as critics warned the city was bypassing an open bidding process.
The agreement establishes a six-month window, with the option for two mutually agreed 90-day extensions, during which AEG will retain and pay for the technical experts and consultants needed to assess the project's feasibility. City Manager Oliver Chi told the council the arrangement carries no immediate cost to the city and does not commit either party to a redevelopment deal.
"We have been working for the past 17-plus years to identify a viable pathway forward to get the civic turned back on," Chi said, describing the auditorium as "such an iconic facility." He noted that separate solicitations in 2009, 2017 and 2023 each "ended without identifying a viable pathway."
AEG, which Chi called the world's second-largest presenter of live music and entertainment events, operates more than 100 venues and promotes over 12,000 shows annually. The company would evaluate the site's market demand, redevelopment costs and financial feasibility, then present its findings to the city.
The city's most recent effort, with the Revitalization Partners Group, ended in October 2025. Chi said the city had heard little from RPG until "yesterday, we did hear reports that they had ceased engagement in the issue," adding that a representative indicated the group had continued to assess the project. The city has not received any financials from that assessment, he said.
Mayor Caroline Torosis pressed staff to guarantee that the new agreement would produce hard numbers, a concern she tied to the shortcomings of past efforts.
"Can we put a requirement in here that at any sort of presentation or at the end of the ENA period ... that we see a full pro forma of the project with a financial analysis?" Torosis asked. "Because I think that was the concern that we previously had on these other endeavors, that there's never been any sort of real there there."
She warned, "Otherwise, I think we're going to be wasting our time."
Chi responded that a detailed pro forma "has already been built into the entire conversation with AEG Presents" as an expected outcome of the assessment.
Councilmember Barry Snell moved to approve the item. "With excitement, I will second that," Torosis said before the council approved the agreement 6-0. Councilmember Dan Hall was absent.
Public comment was divided. Several residents urged the council to move forward while attaching community conditions. Longtime resident Ann Bowman, co-chair of the Civic Center Task Force, called reopening the auditorium "a no brainer" but urged the city to keep the site "public space (or publicly-accessible), not thoroughly privatized." Resident Matt Goldenberg, co-chair of the North of Montana Association writing in a personal capacity, supported the deal and recommended adding community engagement to the scope and requiring a written pro forma as a condition of any extension. "I have not met anyone who wants the Civic to stay closed," he wrote.
The sharpest opposition came from Joseph DiRosa of Seedlings Inc., who has promoted an alternative concept to turn the site into a Santa Monica Global Conference Center with Morphosis Architects. In a series of letters and a formal written protest, DiRosa argued the city should not grant exclusive rights to a company that did not compete in the city's 2024 solicitation without reopening the process.
"The issue is whether they should be granted exclusive negotiating rights without first competing in an open process available to other qualified parties," DiRosa wrote. He also questioned whether Goldenvoice's disclosures adequately reflected its separate agreement with the city for a beach music festival that, according to DiRosa, involves payments to the city exceeding $1 million.
Staff said the auditorium site was cleared under the state Surplus Land Act after the city received certification from the California Department of Housing and Community Development in 2023, giving the council authority to enter an agreement with any entity it chooses. Chi said no prescribed process is required for such an agreement and that it "doesn't constitute a disposition of property."
Under questioning from Councilmember Natalya Zernitskaya, Chi confirmed the site's clearance means a live entertainment venue would not trigger a 15% affordable housing requirement that applies to residential redevelopment.
If the assessment identifies a viable path, staff said, the project would return to the council and community for further review.