WHERE TO STAY, MEET, AND PLAY
Pfister Hotel
This 120-year-old property recently completed extensive renovations to its 176 tower guest rooms. But while the property offers all the amenities of a high-tech hotel, it has maintained its history with a large collection of Victorian art and 19th-century architecture.
Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum
Overlooking Lake Michigan, this Italian Renaissance-style villa features decorative art from the 15th to 18th centuries. It also boasts some remarkable meeting spaces, including the Renaissance Garden, Great Room, and Terrace de Luna.
Mitchell Park Conservatory
This botanical garden showcases the biodiversity of desert oases, tropical jungles, and rich floral gardens below a series of striking glass domes. The futuristic domes not only look great, but can accommodate groups of up to 50 people.
From burgeoning arts districts to innovative new convention centers, the Midwest is enjoying a renaissance. A combination of investments in infrastructure, striking new properties, and citywide efforts to attract new visitors is making this region one of the hottest spots in the country to host a meeting.
"Excitement [mixed] with a sense of resurgence," is how Mike Burns, senior vice president of convention sales and services for Positively Cleveland, describes the feel of the city.
While Burns is speaking specifically of Cleveland, his description of an energized, meeting-friendly destination could apply to the Midwest more generally. While the expansive region boasts a long list of cities great for meetings, here we focus on a few standouts -- Cleveland, OH; Milwaukee, WI; Kansas City, MO; and Minneapolis, MN -- that have been making major investments in attracting groups.
Cleveland, OH
As Burns points out, Cleveland is going big in its meetings investments, spending some $3 billion on new developments for visitors, including new properties and improved infrastructure.
You can't talk about Cleveland's meetings offerings without talking about the new Cleveland Convention Center. With a 225,000-square-foot exhibit hall, 35 high-tech meeting rooms, and a 32,000-square-foot Grand Ballroom (with an individualized lighting grid controlled via iPad), this downtown venue has quickly elevated Cleveland's position as a destination for large-scale events.
Its innovative design -- built underground with 15 acres of green spaces on its roof -- also provides lots of space for outdoor events, whether concerts, festivals, or sporting events. The convention center sits adjacent to the Global Center for Health Innovation, which offers not only education and displays on the future of health and healthcare on four themed floors, but innovative meeting spaces of its own.
The city's hotel offerings are also fast expanding. In the next three years, Cleveland will be adding five new hotels, totaling an additional 1,798 rooms. A notable addition is the 600-room Hilton Cleveland/Downtown convention center hotel, which will connect the convention center, the Global Center for Health Innovation, and the city's downtown mall. The 30-floor, $260-million glass structure will offer an expansive ballroom and impressive views of Lake Erie and the city itself.
"Our convention sales team's approach to the convention market has changed significantly with the opening of the Cleveland Convention Center," says Burns. "We are now able to strategically go after business on a larger scale in order to attract associations and organizations that previously did not consider our destination."
Indeed, last month, the Republican National Committee announced that it had selected Cleveland for one of the highest-profile gatherings in the country: the 2016 Republican National Convention. Some 50,000 delegates, merchants, and members of the media are expected to descend on the city in the summer of 2016, putting a spotlight on Cleveland's expanded infrastructure and offerings.
In addition to the greater amount of offerings, Burns emphasizes Cleveland's convenience. Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, just 12 miles from downtown, offers nonstop services to 39 cities with 146 daily flights. Once in the city, attendees will find they can walk almost anywhere they need to go, or can take free trolleys around the downtown area.
"Meeting attendees can walk right outside of their hotel or the convention center and be within walking distance of attractions like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or Horseshoe Casino Cleveland," adds Burns. "It's all right there."
ESSENTIAL Tool Box
CONVENTION CENTERS & FACILITIES
Cleveland Convention Center (750,000 sf, 225,000 sf of exhibit space); Kansas City Convention Center (800,000 sf, 388,800 sf of exhibit space); Wisconsin Center (300,000 sf); Minneapolis Convention Center (475,000 sf of exhibit space)
ROOM TAX
Room Tax: Varies by city
Kansas City, MO
Planners looking to hold a large-scale meeting in Kansas City, MO, will find it's easier than ever thanks to the fact that Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide now manages the entire "city within a city" of Crown Center. The facility includes the 730-room Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center (previously a Hyatt Regency), the 724-room Westin Kansas City at Crown Center, and the 52,000-square-foot Crown Center Exhibit Hall.
The two Crown Center properties have recently completed $18 million in upgrades, with the Sheraton receiving a new front drive and lobby improvements while the Westin's lobby was updated and improvements were made to its 16,000-square-foot Century Ballroom.
Just as striking as KC's major venues is its thriving arts and nightlife scene. The gallery-lined Crossroads Arts District, set in the shadow of the sweeping Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (ideal for receptions, larger events, or just to catch a ballet or concert) will soon be adding its first hotel -- or, rather, two hotels. In the fall of 2015, a 153-room Courtyard by Marriott and 104-room Residence Inn will be opening under the same roof.
"Kansas City has always been an appealing choice for meetings, due to its central location and overall affordability, but there's a new energy in the heart of the city which is attracting us a lot of new attention these days," says Denise DeJulio, executive director of convention sales for VisitKC, the city's CVB. "More than $6 billion of development has introduced new museums, new hotels, new nightlife ... all just steps from the Kansas City Convention Center."
The city is also in the midst of the construction of a large-scale downtown streetcar project, slated for completion in late 2015. The new cars will cover a two-mile route, from the River Market neighborhood to Union Station (connecting the Crown Center, Power & Light District, and convention center), and will be free to riders.
A pair of new properties recently opened in the city. The 132-room Hotel Sorella Country Club Plaza opened last year, boasting a rooftop pool, Renaissance artwork, and 5,700 square feet of meeting space. A few months before the Sorella's opening, the luxury boutique Ambassador Hotel Kansas City opened its doors, after spending $11 million to transform the historic Gate City National Bank building, which dates from 1906.
This winter, the AC Hotel Kansas City Westport will open for business. The 123-room property will offer cutting-edge amenities such as mobile check-in, USB charging stations, and a "media salon" powered by Bluetooth technology. With 79 properties throughout Europe, the Marriott's AC Hotel brand is still something of a novelty in the U.S., and the Westport hotel will be just the second hotel in the country under the AC banner.
Further in the future, 21c Museum Hotels has announced plans to renovate the 125-year-old Savoy Hotel and Grill, converting the space into a hotel also offering cultural programming and contemporary art.
Minneapolis, MN
"Minneapolis is just what meeting planners are looking for: cosmopolitan, central location, safe, naturally beautiful, vibrant and with an excellent transportation system," says Brent Foerster, senior vice president of destination sales for Meet Minneapolis, the city's convention and visitors association. "When you combine all of that with some of the country's finest hotels, meeting facilties, and attractions, you have a city that meeting planners rave about and attendees leave saying, 'WOW!'"
In addition to the vast Minneapolis Convention Center (475,000 square feet of exhibit space, 87 meeting rooms), and a wealth of hotels and meeting venues, the city is quickly growing its hotel inventory.
Among the hotel projects on the horizon is a $70-million, 302-room Hyatt Regency near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the area's famous Mall of America. Slated to open in early 2016, the hotel will offer a full-service restaurant, bar and lounge, fitness center, coffee shop, and business center. Plans are also underway for a nine-story, 211-room Hampton Inn & Suites in downtown Minneapolis. The $37-million project is expected to open in the first quarter of 2015.
The city has seen a number of enhancements to existing properties. Hilton Minneapolis recently completed a $13.5-million renovation of its guest rooms, upgrading amenities and design, while bolstering the environmental friendliness of the property with LED lighting, low-flow showerheads, and heating efficiency improvements property-wide.
The Graves 601 Hotel, set in the city's entertainment district, was rebranded as the Loews Minneapolis Hotel. The 255-room hotel will undergo a $7-million makeover in the coming months. In July, the new Radisson Blu opened, taking over the former Radisson Plaza Hotel and offering 260 guest rooms, 29,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, and a new Business Class by Radisson Lounge. In April, the University of Minnesota's Northrop Auditorium was reopened after a three-year, $100-million renovation.
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