NEW YORK -- ESPN plans to make an entertainment complex to be built across the street from the Staples Center in Los Angeles its West Coast base of operations.

ESPN will be a big part of LA Live, a complex that will feature a 1,100-room hotel and a 7,100-seat theater as well as movie screens, restaurants and a 40,000-square-foot, open-air plaza. The 4 million-square-foot project is being developed by AEG, which owns the Staples Center.

Plans call for ESPN to have a 120,000-square-foot, five-floor building at the corner of 11th Street and Figueroa with two high-definition TV studios, production facilities, a radio studio, a newsroom and a screening area, said Bob Eaton, senior vp and managing editor of ESPN. It will open in 2009.

"We think it's a terrific opportunity to take our West Coast production and put it into a single facility and expand our West Coast presence," Eaton said Thursday.

ESPN's operations in Los Angeles currently are scattered throughout the city, including a regional sales office and production of "ESPN Hollywood" and "The Jim Rome Show" at the KTLA-TV facility.

"This will allow us to do more West Coast stuff in 'SportsCenter' and to use Los Angeles as a backdrop," Eaton said. He said that Los Angeles is a huge market that would be useful not only to the main network but also to ESPN Deportes, the company's 24-hour Spanish-language channel.

There also are plans for an ESPN Zone at LA Live.

Groundbreaking for LA Live was held Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles.