Florida's East Coast: New Properties Abound

Stretching from Jacksonville to Miami, Florida's East Coast has destinations that are perfect for any group.

From the exciting clubs and dining scene in Miami to the Gold Coast luxury of Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, the southern tip has some of the best nightlife and luxury. The sometimes overlooked middle-coast areas offer plenty of exciting venues, notably the world-famous Daytona International Speedway -- now undergoing a huge renovation and expansion -- and Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center, which just unveiled the magnificent new home of the Shuttle Atlantis. Up north there are laid-back venues like St. Augustine and Amelia Island, and bustling Jacksonville.

There is some of the best golf in the world along Florida's East Coast, notably the PGA headquarters and its neighboring PGA National Resort and Spa, in Palm Beach Gardens.

To top it off, there are a lot of new and renewed resorts, meeting venues, and entertainment options everywhere you look. Here's a roundup of some of the latest.

Jacksonville
Up at the top of Florida's East Coast, Jacksonville is seeing a lot of renovation activity along with plans to open several new properties.

The Embassy Suites Jacksonville - Baymeadows is renovating its 277 guest suites and 7,200 square feet of meeting space, including the 4,408-square-foot, divisible Regency Ballroom.

DoubleTree by Hilton is expanding its presence in the area, renovating and converting two existing hotels. The 201-room DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Jacksonville Airport, now open, offers free Wi-Fi and has 11,000 square feet of event space including the 3,450-square-foot Legend Ballroom. The 292-room Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront is undergoing a $5 million renovation schedule for completion in the third quarter of 2015, when it will reflag as the DoubleTree by Hilton Jacksonville Riverfront. It has 12,000 square feet of meeting space and a Ruth's Chris Steak House.

Work is underway for a 131-room Courtyard by Marriott on Laura Street, which is scheduled to open in late 2016. Developers are looking at building an 88-room TownPlace Suites by Marriott along Beach Boulevard, and a 70-room La Quinta in Arlington.

Another venue to consider is the Jessie Ball DuPont Center, a non-profit hub that will open in June following a $21 million renovation of the building. Meeting and events facilities will include a conference center with a lecture hall seating 148 people, 12 meeting rooms, and a catering kitchen. The building also will have a great hall suitable for receptions, with a concourse overlooking it.

On nearby Amelia Island, the Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) has accepted the Amelia Island Convention and Visitors Bureau into the Destination Marketing Accreditation Program, recognizing it as meeting a high level of quality and performance standards.

St. Augustine/Ponte Vedra Beach
The Holiday Isle Oceanfront Resort will be transformed into a Guy Harvey Outpost property by this fall. The 153-room, pet-friendly property's renovations will include a "sea- and farm-to-table" restaurant. The hotel has more than 4,000 square feet of meeting and event space.

Last year, the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, home of the PGA's THE PLAYERS Championship tournament, completed a major renovation covering everything from the golf course villas and suites to the lobby and meeting spaces. The resort's 510 guest rooms were refurnished and the 80 two-bedroom Villas at Sawgrass renovated -- these can also be used as meeting and breakout rooms for up to 12 people. The resort's 56,000 square feet of flexible function space received new wall coverings, seating, light fixtures, and golf-themed carpeting. All ballrooms, pre-function areas, meeting rooms, and boardrooms have been completely revitalized with new artwork and golf memorabilia.

In August, the 94-room Hampton Inn & Suites St. Augustine-Vilano Beach completed renovations that included work on the hotel's lobby, guestrooms, fitness center, and pool area. It has 840 square feet of meeting space.

Daytona Beach
With more than $1 billion being invested currently in Daytona Beach's hotels, venues, and attractions, there has never been a better time to give this Central Florida destination another look.

Among the new additions are a $400 million expansion of the Daytona International Speedway, a new minor league baseball team, an art museum, an oceanfront roller coaster, and One Daytona, a 1.1 million-square-foot district of premier shopping, dining, and entertainment on 181 acres along International Speedway Boulevard.

The Shores Resort & Spa, an AAA Four-Diamond oceanfront resort, wrapped up a six-month, property-wide renovation in December, which saw all guest rooms and outdoors areas overhauled. Enhancements to the more than 20,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor function space included a new, ocean-inspired décor scheme for the 11th floor meeting rooms, new carpeting, and paint for the 6,895-square-foot ground floor Grand Ballroom and its pre-function area. Wi-Fi bandwidth was increased and now features 100 mpbs high-speed service.

Work began late last year on the Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach, which will have 250 guest rooms and two rock star suites, a signature Hard Rock Cafe, a fitness center, spa, and a pool area, as well as more than 28,000 square feet of meeting and event space. It is scheduled for completion in late 2016.

Daytona Beach's Museum of Arts & Sciences' newest facility, the $13 million, 26,000-square-foot Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art, will open this month, featuring what it calls the most extensive collection of Florida art worldwide. It has a large number of meeting and event venues, including Root Hall, with 2,000 square feet of open space for receptions and dining, a 266-seat auditorium, and 86,000 square feet of museum gallery space.

Scheduled to open in 2016, One Daytona, across the street from the Daytona International Speedway, will initially include a Bass Pro Shops store and a movie theater multiplex. A 145-room Marriott Autograph Collection property will be built as well.

The Space Coast
At a time when public interest in space travel is being renewed by factors as diverse as the wildly successful Mars Rovers, Neil deGrasse Tyson's popular reboot of the TV show "Cosmos," and Tesla automobiles owner Elon Musk's private Space X corporation's contract to resupply the International Space Station, the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL, offers one of the most exciting new venues around: the $100 million Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction.

The 90,000-square-foot venue, with the shuttle serving as a centerpiece, can seat up to 300 attendees for dinner or receptions up to 1,200. The Center can help planners book astronauts for a variety of speaking and meet-and-greet activities, and, of course, if the dates work, can arrange viewing events for launches of Delta IV, Atlas V, and SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, which are every bit as spectacular as the Shuttle launches were.

The Center has two other main group venues. The Dr. Kurt H. Debus Conference Facility, divisible into up to five meeting spaces, can accommodate group of 30 to 700, and overlooks the Rocket Garden display of eight vintage rockets from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. The 100,000-square-foot Apollo/Saturn V Center has spaces that can accommodate plated dinners of up to 300, and receptions of up to 3,000.

Of course there are other things to do in the area. The Space Coast, which includes Cocoa Beach, has 72 miles of beaches and is just 45 minutes from Orlando and its theme parks.

The Palm Beaches
Groups planning to use both the Palm Beach County Convention Center and a room block at a hotel within the county are eligible for a new, $1 million meeting planner incentive program from the county convention and visitors bureau, Discover The Palm Beaches. The new program, for group, as small as five or as large as 5,000 or more, is applicable for events held through 2020.

The program also comes as the county unveiled news of the 403-room Hilton Convention Center West Palm Beach Hotel, which will be located directly adjacent to the Palm Beach County Convention Center, when it opens in early 2016. The county has long been working to attract a convention center headquarters hotel, which will  be a prime location for groups using the convention center.

The PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens is undergoing a series of renovations this year, including upgrades to the spa and the health and racquet club. In addition, a new indoor-outdoor event venue is coming in late summer when the iDECK is unveiled. The 3,000-square-foot terrace will offer pool and lake views. That's in addition to redesigns of several of its top suites, and the famed Champions Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus.

The old Omphoy relaunched on Dec. 1 as a Kimpton Hotels property, the Tideline Ocean Resort & Spa. The 134-room property offers more than 6,200 square feet of meeting space, including the 2,160-square-foot Ocean Ballroom, which offers dramatic water views from a window wall and can host up to 300, reception-style. The resort is building a totally new and expanded, 5,900-square-foot Tideline Spa with seven treatment rooms.

The Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa is finishing up a series of renovations focused on making common spaces, including the lobby and bar, more guest-friendly and usable for work and mingling with new furniture, increased Wi-Fi bandwidth, and charging stations. It has 189 condo-style suites, the Si Spa, and seven meeting rooms with 3,560 square feet of space, including the 1,600-square-foot Colonnade Ballroom

The Colony Palm Beach and its 90 guestrooms and suites recently underwent a $9 million "re-imagination" by designer Carleton Varney, bringing the British Colonial-style boutique a palette of vibrant colors, floral patterns, and bold contrasts, as well as high-tech amenities and luxury linens. It has a 3,500-square-foot Event Pavilion that can accommodate groups of up to 250.

Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale is in the midst of celebrating Broward County's 100th anniversary this year with a series of arts and performance events overseen by the Broward 100 organization.

The 16-acre Fort Lauderdale Harbor Beach Marriott finished up a $6.5 million renovation to its meeting and event space late last year. The property has 40,000 square feet of indoor meeting and event space including 32 meeting rooms and 60,000 square feet of outdoor space. Work included new light fixtures, modern furniture, carpeting, and wall coverings with a tropical/Caribbean feel. It has a quarter-mile of private beach and a 22,000-square-foot spa.

B Hotels & Resorts has returned to Fort Lauderdale with a new beachfront property, the 486-room B Ocean Resort Fort Lauderdale, in the now-reflagged Yankee Clipper Sheraton. Amenities include two outdoor pools, a private beach, approximately 7,500 square feet of function space, and free Wi-Fi throughout, including the meeting spaces. A renovation program is scheduled to begin in mid-2015.

Opening this spring, the Beachwalk Resort on the Intracoastal Waterway in Hallandale Beach will have 216 two-bedroom, two-bath condos that can be divided into one-bedroom and studio spaces. HYDE resort on Hollywood Beach will feature 367 two- and three-bedroom condos with a pool and seeping ocean views.

The Pelican Grand Beach Resort is undergoing a $5 million renovation, adding the 2,055-square-foot Oceanview Ballroom and 2,678-square-foot Oceanview Terrace early this year. That's on top of the 1,400-square-foot Atlantic Ballroom and 1,733-square-foot Atlantic Terrace completed late last year. A new ocean-view spa and a penthouse are also being added.

The $175 million, 349-room Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort opens next summer with seven Margaritaville-themed restaurants and lounges, a spa and large pool complex, and 30,000 square feet of meeting space. The Diplomat Resort & Spa Hollywood, a Curio Collection by Hilton, reflagged from Westin late last year. The 998-room property has six restaurants, including the AAA Four-Diamond Diplomat Prime Steakhouse, as well as 200,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor meeting space. The 290-room Conrad Fort Lauderdale Resort will reopen this year following $34 million in renovations. It will have 15,000 square feet of indoor event space with ocean views, and more than 20,000 square feet of oceanfront outdoor space.

Miami
The 200-room Shelborne Wyndham Grand South Beach has been awarded AAA Four-Diamond status on the heels of a $90 million renovation completed last fall. Located in the heart of the Art Deco District, it has more than 15,000 square feet of event space.

The 643-room, AAA-Four-Diamond Trump National Doral Miami completed a two-year, $250 million, top-to-bottom renovation of the 800-acre resort late last year. It has more than 100,000 square feet of renovated meeting space, the largest being the 24,000-square-foot Donald J. Trump Ballroom. The Doral is known for its five championship golf courses, most notably the famed Blue Monster, which along with the Golden Palm, Silver Fox, and Red Tiger courses, has recently been renovated.

In December, the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay wrapped up a renovation of its 20,000 square feet of meeting spaces, including 23 meeting rooms, a 9,860-square-foot grand ballroom and the 2,500-square-foot Bayview Ballroom with incredible bay views. A state-of-the-art A/V system and upgraded high-speed Wi-Fi have also been added.

Three new hotels are coming to Miami this year. Commune Hotels & Resorts' California-based brand Joie de Vivre hotels will open an East Coast outpost on Miami Beach's Collins Avenue. The Hall, a 164-room property in an historic Art Deco building, features a restaurant, beer garden, and pool.

A number of forthcoming properties are on the way, including the Aloft South Beach, which will have 235 rooms, the brand's signature w xyz bar and re:mix lounge, free Wi-Fi and wired Internet access throughout, and three meeting spaces totaling 1,500 square feet. Spanish hospitality company Meliá Hotels International will bring its contemporary, urban ME by Meliá brand into the United States with the ME Miami, a 129-room with dining venues totaling 5,000 square feet property built with special events in mind. The 263-room EAST, Miami is opening at Brickell CityCentre in the downtown financial district.

Recent additions include the 380-room Thompson Miami Beach, with 47,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor event space; the 294-room Miami Beach EDITION hotel with more than 10,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space, and Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Latin-themed Matador Room; and the newly reflagged Ritz-Carlton Bal Harbour, Miami has 2,400 square feet of indoor space and an additional 3,400 square feet of outdoor terraces.  

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This article appears in the February 2015 issue of Successful Meetings.