Meeting News - August 11, 2008 - (Page 64)

Destination Insider: Dallas-Fort Worth Edited by Terri Hardin terri.hardin@nielsen.com It’s a Fall 2010 Date For Irving’s Nascent Convention Center On July 24, the Irving City Council approved plans for a convention center whose design was first shown to council members just one day prior. The rapid approval, however, followed nine years of study and whittling of concept, scale, and budget. Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau executive director Maura Allen Gast and her staff have already begun efforts to fill the center, slated to open just over two years from now.“We’re letting our customers, meeting planners, and local corporations know that beginning in November 2010, their meetings and events will have a beautiful new home in Irving, Texas,” she said. The building will feature a 50,000-sf, columnless exhibit hall on the first level; 20 breakout rooms of 1,000 sf each on the second; and a 20,000-sf ballroom on the top level. Between the first and second levels will be a mezzanine with a cafe and an outdoor terrace. According to Diana Located in Las Colinas, the Irving Convention Center will go after high-end business. Pfaff, a spokeswoman for the Irving CVB, the center is expected to draw 265 events annually, including 25 conventions and trade show, 15 consumer shows, and 225 meetings and other events such as executive retreats and executive training classes. “We have several Fortune 500 companies in our backyard,” including ExxonMobil, Pfaff pointed out. The center is the first element of a mixed-use entertainment complex on a 40-acre site in Las Colinas. Phase II will include a 3,500-seat concert hall set to open in early 2011, restaurants, retail, and a cinema. Two hotels, a 400-room convention hotel, and a 100-room boutique property will be developed by owner/entrepreneur Patrick J. Kennedy, the man behind the Watermark Hotel & Spa in San Antonio. According to Pfaff, the developer is looking at stacking the two hotels. The entertainment component will help set the Irving Convention Center apart from in-state competitors like the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, in Grapevine, and the Arlington Convention Center.“Our rates will be steeper; we’re really targeting the high-end market,” said Pfaff. “We will focus on smaller groups.” To be run by SMG, the center will have an exhibit hall five times the size of the largest function space currently available in Irving. One of the project’s goals is to fill hotel rooms on weekends. To that end, “the sports market,” and specifically amateur sporting events, “is one we’ll go after,” said Pfaff. The Irving bureau anticipates selling 35,000 additional room nights annually once the convention center opens. Irving has numerous other projects in the works, including redevelopment of the site of Texas Stadium, where the Dallas Cowboys are playing for the last time this season before moving to a new stadium. At press time, plans were announced for one portion of the site: Tanger Factory Outlet, a collection of 90 upscale stores. Also arriving in Irving between now and 2010 are aloft Las Colinas (136 rooms), Element Irving (123 rooms), NYLO Las Colinas (200 rooms), a Crowne Plaza (150 rooms), and a —Julie Barker Hotel Indigo (85 rooms). r www.meetingnews.com The venue is on a 40-acre site with retail, entertainment, and two hotels planned. 64 MeetingNews August 11, 2008 http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - August 11, 2008

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