By Lynn Elber
The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Following the Academy Awards' lead in moving to a custom-built theater, Emmy organizers are seeking a new home for their ceremony in a planned downtown development.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' board of directors approved a letter of intent for a 15-year lease on a proposed theater in what would be called the LA Live complex, an entertainment, hotel and retail center.

"The chance to take a bigger-than-life awards show and match it with a state-of-the-art theater is the kind of stuff Hollywood dreams are made of," academy chairman Bryce Zabel said.

The board agreed Dec. 12 to sign a letter of intent with billionaire Philip Anschutz's AEG Corp., which in May 2000 proposed a 43-acre, $1 billion development across from the Staples Center, which AEG owns and operates.

The Emmy Awards would be the anchor tenant for a 200,000-square-foot theater designed to seat 6,000 to 7,000 people. The awards' current home, the Shrine Auditorium, seats about 6,000.

Other major awards ceremonies would be precluded from using the new theater, with the possible exception of the Latin Grammys, the academy said.

It's expected the theater, if built, wouldn't be ready before 2006, Mr. Zabel said, adding that the lease cost would be equivalent to what the academy is paying the Shrine.

The Shrine agreement runs through next year, and the academy would expect to keep the awards there until the new theater was ready, he said.

The academy deal with AEG is contingent on construction of a hotel adjacent to the theater that could accommodate the Governors Ball that follows the Emmys, Mr. Zabel said.

The city's financial participation in the hotel is critical to its construction and to the entire project, AEG spokesman Michael Roth said. Parking lots currently cover much of the land intended for development.

"The city of Los Angeles has approved the zoning and other important elements to develop the site, including the hotel," Mr. Roth said, but city funding is still under discussion.

A major hotel would help increase business at the nearby Los Angeles Convention Center, Mr. Roth said. There are 900 nearby hotel rooms, compared with 10,000 hotel rooms within walking distance of San Francisco's convention center, he said.

"It's an important investment the city needs to make not only for the moving-forward financial success of the Los Angeles Convention Center but the continued revitalization of downtown Los Angeles," he said.

The issue is expected to be resolved sometime next year, he said.

In March, the Oscars moved to the Kodak Theatre in a newly developed retail-hotel complex in the Hollywood district. AEG operates but doesn't own the Kodak.

Mr. Zabel said he was confident a new downtown theater would be a boon for the Emmys regardless of the center's retail performance.