Construction has started in Shanghai on the $2.4 billion waterfront entertainment complex from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. and its Chinese partners. The 40-acre Dream Center includes movie theaters, bars, restaurants, performance venues, outdoor plazas and a live theater district modeled on Broadway and London’s West End. It is scheduled to open in 2017. Foundation work on the complex began in May and above-ground construction is expected to begin next year, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Dream Center had originally been announced in 2012 with a completion date in 2016. It has been delayed as Glendale animation studio and its Chinese partners figured out how to make it work financially, the Times reported. A relaunch ceremony took place last year, with DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg declaring that Shanghai will become the third great entertainment district in the world after New York and London. DreamWorks Animation joined with three Chinese media companies, China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd., in early 2012 to form Oriental DreamWorks. The joint venture will collaborate on a film studio, the Dream Center in Shanghai, mobile, online, interactive games and consumer products. DreamWorks Animation owns 45 percent of the company. Shares closed down $1.44, or more than 5 percent, to $26.40 on the Nasdaq. The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. The current minimum wage of $7.25 will rise to $10.50 next summer and then increase in phases. The measure now awaits the signature of Mayor Eric Garcetti to become law. The Los Angeles County Business Federation, or BizFed, and other business groups opposed the measure, maintaining it will move jobs outside the city and force employers to cut jobs or hours to save on labor costs. L.A. will be the third large city on the West Coast to adopt a $15 minimum wage law, following San Francisco and Seattle.
