Jessica Lall will replace Carol Schatz as head of Central City Association

Jessica Lall (Credit: South Park BID)
Jessica Lall (Credit: South Park BID)

The Downtown business and lobbying group Central City Association has announced a new leader: Jessica Lall, who will replace Carol Schatz as CCA’s president and CEO.

During Lall’s nearly four-year tenure as executive director of the South Park Business Improvement District, she oversaw the BID’s 20-block expansion, various neighborhood improvement programs, and the growth of its staff, the Los Angeles Downtown News reported.

Among her champions is Shelby Jordan, the director of business systems at Anschutz Entertainment Group, the firm behind L.A. Live. She’s also vice president of the South Park BID board of directors.

“What Jessica inherited was not a high-performing, efficient organization,” Jordan told the Downtown News. “She hit the ground running.”

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Previously Lall worked under former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the Farmers Field football stadium effort and the privatization of the Convention Center.

The 32-year-old USC alum has big shoes to fill. Outgoing CCA president and CEO Carol Schatz has been with the organization for 26 years. Notches on her belt include expanding the body from 100 members and a $750,000 budget to 500 members and a budget of about $3 million.

In 1999, Schatz helped the city to pass the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance to make it easier for developers to convert old office buildings into housing, which some say kicked off the DTLA residential resurgence.

Lall will begin her new position on Jan. 3, 2017. [LADTN]Cathaleen Chen