Meeting News - October 20, 2008 - (Page 28)

Destination Insider: Florida Coast to Coast A Big Shot in the Arm on Miami Beach After being shuttered for massive renovations, two legendary Miami hotels reopen expanded to 1,504 rooms, and the Eden Roc, which grew from 350 rooms to 631 with the renovation, are coming less than 30 days apart, collectively putting 2,135 high-end, beachfront hotel rooms into the Miami market. The Eden Roc will reopen on Oct. 24; the Fontainebleau on Nov. 15. Miami-area convention marketing officials are ecstatic. “It’s almost impossible to overstate the significance of these reopenings,” said Ita Moriarity, senior VP of convention sales at the Greater Miami CVB. “Very rarely do you get more than 2,100 high-end, oceanfront hotel rooms coming into the inventory in one month. This is going to have a huge impact, because the hotels [also have] added a lot of meeting space.” The Fontainebleau will offer a total of 107,000 sf of indoor meeting space, including 66,000 sf in three ballrooms, the largest of which can seat 3,000 people theater-style. The Fontainebleau will also have 51,000 sf of outdoor event space, including a new, 21,000-sf space called the Ocean Lawn. The Eden Roc (officially the Eden Roc, a Renaissance Beach Resort & Spa) will have 50,000 sf of indoor meeting space, plus a new, 24,000-sf rooftop terrace available for private events. The two hotels, which were fierce competitors to the point of being adversaries in the 1950s and 1960s, have a new outlook—collaboration. “We have three or four events in the planning stages for which groups will be using facilities at both hotels,” said Saun Lightbourne, director of sales and marketing at the Eden Roc.“We’re both excited about the opportunity to take advantage of these two hotels being next-door neighbors.” The two hotels are on a boardwalk, making it easy to walk from one property to the other. Scott Flexman, vice president of sales and marketing for the Fontainebleau, concurred that the two hotels will work together on some events. However, he also stressed the unique asset of his hotel—the number of guest rooms. “There is no other oceanfront hotel in the U.S. with 1,504 guest rooms, and no hotel at which you can put together a block of 1,000 oceanfront rooms for a single event—and all under one roof,” said Flexman.“That puts us in a very good position for large, upscale meetings. We are going to give South Beach a serious run for its money as a group destination.” The new Fontainebleau is a sight to behold. Two years ago, when the largest beachfront hotel in metro Miami, the Fontainebleau, and its nextdoor neighbor, the Eden Roc, closed for massive renovations, people in the local meetings industry bemoaned the closures, noting that they yanked 1,200 high-end rooms out of the city’s inventory. But William Talbert, president and CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, took the “glass half-full” view, calling the Fontainebleau “the once and future largest oceanfront hotel in America.” (When it first opened in 1954, the Fontainebleau was the nation’s largest beachfront hotel, with 850 rooms.) Now, the reopenings of the Fontainebleau, A Plus for Conventions, Downtown Stock Is Growing Hotel Assn. Prez: More To Appear on the Beach The reopenings of the Fontainebleau and the Eden Roc are just the beginning for north Miami Beach, said Stuart Blumberg, president of the Greater Miami & the Beaches Hotel Association. “In all, the number of new, high-end hotel rooms added in the neighborhood around the Fontainebleau and the Eden Roc in the coming year is going to be closer to 3,000 than 2,100,” Blumberg said. That’s because in November, the 585-room Canyon Ranch Resort & Spa, with a small conference center for up to 50 people and a 70,000sf luxury spa, will go online. W hile the imminent Fontainebleau and Eden Roc revivals on Miami Beach are being hailed by local tourism officials as an epic event in Miami hotel history, the Dec. 15 opening of a smaller property downtown, the 411-room Epic, could prove quite important for the meetings market, too. “It’s significant as another piece in the puzzle for the downtown meetings market,” said William Talbert, president & CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. “The Fontainebleau and Eden Roc will add 2,100 more rooms, but when you look at the Epic combined with other downtown properties, you come up with a little more than 2,100 rooms, all within walking distance, or a free People Mover ride, from the Miami Convention Center.” Talbert is including existing hotels like the 614-room Hyatt Regency Miami, which adjoins the 28,000-sf Miami Convention Center; the 641-room InterContinental Miami Hotel; the 214-room Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Miami; the soon-to-open 411-room Epic; and the 396-room Marriott Marquis Miami, set to debut across the street from Epic next year. Totaling 2,276 rooms, they are all within walking distance of the Miami Convention Center (not to be confused with the Miami Beach Convention Center, which offers just over 500,000 sf and caters to citywide meetings). “We’re adding another option for the small to midsize meetings market that has been developing downtown,” said Eric Jellson, area director of sales for Epic. A Kimpton property, Epic will offer 11,000 sf of meeting space, including two waterfront private dining rooms. It’s a block from the Miami Convention Center. —Miami section written by Rowland Stiteler 28 MeetingNews October 20, 2008 www.meetingnews.com http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - October 20, 2008

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