Southern Florida: New Hotels Keep Coming

Next year is shaping up to be the year that convention centers in southern Florida get long-desired facelifts and their own headquarters/convention hotels.

In Miami, it's a case of something old and something new when it comes to convention facilities. In October, the Miami City Commission unanimously approved plans to build a new convention center and connecting hotel with a total of 600,000 square feet of meeting and event space in downtown Miami as part of the Miami Worldcenter master development. It will include an 1,800-room Marriott Marquis hotel and a 350,000-square-foot convention center with a 100,000-square-foot exhibit hall, a 60,000-square-foot ballroom, and a 40,000-square-foot junior ballroom, each stacked on top of the other to form a three-tier structure. It will also have an 80,000-square-foot outdoor event deck.

The 1-million-square-foot Miami Beach Convention Center, meanwhile, will spend much of next year finalizing renovation details and, hopefully, will win approval for a $500-million plan to redesign and expand the center, adding 70,000 square feet as well as two parks. Planning is also underway to bring a headquarters hotel to the convention center.

In Fort Lauderdale, the Broward County Convention Center has entered the planning phase of efforts to bring in a new, 750-room convention hotel and expand its facilities by 70,000 square feet. This comes just two years after a renovation that made it Florida's first LEED Gold-certified convention center in the existing building category. Designs focus heavily on the planners' desire to create an "iconic waterfront," including more open space and a new commercial harbor that would make water taxis an attractive way to reach the center. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is also getting a facelift, with a major runway expansion and project to add four gates to Terminal 4.

Palm Beach County officials are finally able to see work underway on the long-desired and much-needed Palm Beach County Convention Center headquarters hotel, the 400-room Hilton West Palm Beach. It is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2016.

Miami
In Miami, the hotel business is booming, with several new properties joining the growing number that are currently undergoing major renovations.

The Thompson Miami Beach is a new upscale beachfront property on Collins Avenue that joins a 1940s Art Deco tower with a 1950s international-style building. It has 380 rooms in all, 47,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor event space, two heated pools, and an outdoor rooftop spa. Nightlife venues include the 1930s House, a beach bungalow housing a speakeasy-themed lounge.

Opened in November in the heart of Miami Beach's growing Mid-Beach area, the 294-room Miami Beach EDITION hotel is the newest collaboration between Marriott and boutique hotelier Ian Schrager. It features more than 10,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space. The property also features 28 private bungalows, a spa, and a restaurant by internationally known chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

The newest addition to South Beach Group Hotels, Hotel Croydon reopened its doors this spring on Collins Avenue. The 100-room hotel features $15 million in renovations, including a pool and rooftop meeting space.

The Trump National Doral Miami has expanded its meeting and event spaces as part of a $250-million renovation that the 800-acre resort has been undergoing since 2012. This includes a complete overhaul of the 100,000-square-foot Miami Ballrooms area. The property has also added three new ballrooms: the 7,300-square-foot Crystal Ballroom, with an 8,000-square-foot terrace overlooking the famed Blue Monster Golf Course; the 8,100-square-foot Ivanka Trump Ballroom; and the 9,500-square-foot White & Gold Ballroom.

In October, the 124-room ONE Bal Harbour Resort & Spa became The Ritz-Carlton Bal Harbour, Miami. It offers 2,400 square feet of indoor space and an additional 3,400 square feet of outdoor terraces, as well as a 2,800-square-foot penthouse suite.  

Opened in September following a $90-million renovation, the 200-room Shelborne Wyndham Grand South Beach is located in the neighborhood's Art Deco district. It has 11 indoor and outdoor function spaces, including an 1,100-person observation deck with incredible views of Miami Beach. Its four restaurants and lounges include Morimoto South Beach.

In December, the Royal Polo Miami Beach by Hilton Garden Inn will reopen its 96 rooms and suites following a full renovation. The classic 1930s property in the heart of Miami Beach features a renovated lobby bar, private roof sundeck, and meeting facilities.

Three new hotels will enter Miami next year. Scheduled to open in March, the Aloft South Beach will have 235 rooms, the brand's signature w xyz bar and re:mix lounge, free Wi-Fi, and three meeting spaces totaling 2,500 square feet.  

Spanish hospitality company Meliá Hotels International will bring its contemporary, urban ME by Melia brand into the U.S. with the ME Miami, a 129-room property on Biscayne Boulevard. It will have two dining venues totaling 5,000 square feet, both of which have been designed with special events in mind.

Hong Kong-based Swire Hotels will make its first foray into the U.S. with the 263-room EAST, Miami at its parent company's Brickell CityCentre, a 9.1-acre, $1-billion mixed-use development in the downtown financial district. Meeting spaces are as yet unannounced.

The 98-room Acqualina Resort & Spa in Miami's Sunny Isles Beach has wrapped up a redesign of its guest rooms. The AAA Five-Diamond resort has a 20,000-square-foot ESPA oceanfront spa and 2,759 square feet of meeting space with a wraparound private terrace overlooking the water. 

Fort Lauderdale 
Aside from work on the new convention center hotel, the big news in Fort Lauderdale is the forthcoming changes in attitude that will accompany the opening of the new Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort on the Boardwalk. The $175-million property, scheduled to open next summer, will offer 349 "casual-luxe" guest rooms, as well as an 11,000-square-foot spa, seven Margaritaville-themed restaurants and lounges, and multiple pools -- one of which will feature dueling FlowRider surfing simulators. The resort will have 30,000 square feet of meeting space across 11 rooms, the largest being the 10,000-square-foot Compass Rose Ballroom.

A Westin no longer, the Diplomat Resort & Spa Hollywood, a Curio Collection by Hilton, debuted in October. Soon to begin a $100-million renovation, the 998-room property has a 14-room Diplomat Spa and 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 newly rebranded Sonesta Fort Lauderdale, formerly the B Ocean Fort Lauderdale, has 240 guest rooms and 8,000 square feet of penthouse-level meeting facilities, the largest being the 3,157-square-foot Infinity Ballroom. The AAA Four Diamond property also has a 234-square-foot meeting room opening onto a 1,134-square-foot terrace on the second floor.

Hilton's Conrad brand will open the new 290-room Conrad Fort Lauderdale Resort and Residences on Fort Lauderdale Beach next year, following $34 million in renovations. It will include a Conrad Spa, a swimming pool, an oceanfront restaurant, 15,000 square feet of indoor event space with ocean views, and more than 20,000 square feet of flexible oceanfront outdoor space.

Next spring will bring the Beachwalk Resort, a new Pininfarina-designed property, along the Intracoastal Waterway in Hallandale Beach. It will have 216 two-bedroom/two-bathroom, divisible resort rental units. Its beachfront sister property, HYDE Resort, will have 367 resort units. They will share a beach club on Hollywood Beach.

The newly independent Bonavanture Resort & Spa recently refreshed its 500 rooms -- 100 of which are suites -- and aLaya Spa on the heels of a 2013 renovation of its 80,000-plus square feet of conference and event space, which includes a 3,400-seat amphitheater.

Palm Beach County 
Opened in October, the 179-room Wyndham Grand Jupiter at Harbourside Place is located on the Intracoastal Waterway and features a rooftop pool and nine meeting rooms with 15,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space. Part of the Harbourside Place retail, dining, and entertainment complex, it also has access to the complex's outdoor amphitheater, which can hold 3,500.

The AAA Four Diamond, 835-room Boca Raton Resort & Club, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, is nearing completion of a $30-million renovation of its historic 318-room Cloister building, considered to be one of Addison Mizner's architectural masterpieces. The pink property, set on 356 beachfront acres, has 150,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor meeting space

The 309-room, AAA Five Diamond Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa is working with Jonathan Adler to redesign its guest rooms. Formerly The Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach, it has approximately 30,000 square feet of meeting space.

The 139-room Waterstone Resort & Marina - A DoubleTree by Hilton is set to open this month, after extensive renovations. In June, the 128-room Courtyard by Marriott Palm Beach Jupiter opened with 2,274 square feet of meeting space. This month, the 95-room Fairfield Inn Delray Beach on Delray Beach's Atlantic Avenue will open with 1,467 square feet of meeting space. In January, the 152-suite Residence Inn West Palm Beach Downtown will open with 2,500 square feet of meeting space.

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This article appears in the December 2014 issue of Successful Meetings.