Orange County is headed downtown. While it still has its famous theme parks and golden beach communities, there are also increasing numbers of sophisticated urban-style amenities that are making the destination even more appealing to groups.
The old adage that Southern California is not pedestrian-friendly hardly applies to Orange County cities such as Anaheim and Costa Mesa, where there are a growing number of dining, shopping and entertainment options within walking distance of hotels. And overall quality is improving as well, with hotel enhancements, revitalized districts and expanded cultural attractions further boosting Orange County as a well-rounded meetings destination.
To top it off, exposure in recent years from The OC and other television shows continues to have a positive impact on the region, according to Tom Smalley, president of the Costa Mesa Conference and Visitors Bureau and general manager of the Wyndham Hotel Orange County.
“For a long time we were overlooked in favor of San Diego and Los Angeles—they were Southern California to many people,” he says. “All of the press and television has positioned us as a cool, hip destination. One noticeable sign of this is that we’re seeing more spouses and families coming along to meetings.”
Anaheim
Anaheim, which launched an ambitious revitalization plan for its downtown area over a decade ago, is continuing to reinvent itself with new amenities within walking distance of the Anaheim Convention Center and Angel Stadium, home of the Anaheim Angels baseball team.
The first phase of Anaheim GardenWalk, a complex of shops, restaurants and hotels connected by landscaped walkways near the convention center, is scheduled for completion this November, with several restaurants, including Roy’s of Hawaii and P.F. Chang’s, opening along Katella Avenue. Retail shops are scheduled to follow next year, while two or three hotels with a total of 1,200 guest rooms are expected to open in GardenWalk by the end of 2009.
“GardenWalk will be a great thing for planners—a place where they can turn attendees loose on a free night,” says Candace Bisconte, manager of Access Destinations Services, an Irvine-based destination management company. “A common complaint is that downtown Anaheim doesn’t have enough nightlife, but this will take care of that.”
Currently under development near Angel Stadium, just over a mile from the convention center, is Platinum Triangle, a new neighborhood of residences, offices and shops that will open in phases beginning this fall.
Also scheduled to open this fall is The Muzeo, a cultural center and museum offering function space within a mile of the convention center. The new museum’s first show will present over 450 artifacts from ancient Rome drawn from 15 museums in Italy.
“New downtown projects are really changing things here,” says Charles Ahlers, president of the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau, adding that things first came to fruition in 2000 with the opening of Downtown Disney and Disney’s California Adventure theme park, as well as the creation of the Anaheim Resort district, which brought hotel upgrades and new landscaping and signage to the city center.
“Seven years later, we’re entering a second phase with GardenWalk, which will give us more restaurants and entertainment right within walking distance of the convention center,” Ahlers says.
For Anaheim, 2007 is shaping up to be a banner year for meetings, especially citywide conventions.
“We have 14 conventions on the books this year that will use more than 4,000 rooms on peak nights,” Ahlers says. “This is our best year since we completed the convention center expansion in 2001.”
In fact, business is so strong that another convention center expansion may soon be on the way. According to Ahlers, a task force is now studying the feasibility of adding another 100,000 to 200,000 square feet of exhibit space and a similar amount of new meeting space to the facility, which currently offers 815,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space.
“We’re as big as it gets in this state, but we’re still not big enough for a lot of groups. There are groups who can’t meet in California, period,” Ahlers says. “We could use both exhibit and meeting space.”
The fact that some groups are growing larger is only part of the dilemma.
“An even bigger issue is that groups are getting more fired up about education, which means that meeting rooms are really at a premium,” Ahlers says. “There is so much more continuing education and certification going on these days.”
Ahlers is confident that the convention center, which has already expanded five times, will easily draw enough business to absorb the new space, which he says could be up and running within five years.
“Attendance here is very good, partly because we have 19.2 million people living within a radius of 70 miles from Anaheim,” he says. “Unlike a lot of cities, there’s a huge population base that can just drive here.”
Also unlike some other cities, Anaheim already has a good number of hotel rooms to support the center.
“We’re in good shape with hotels, as we’ve got 26,000 rooms between Anaheim and Garden Grove, which borders us,” Ahlers says.
Major meetings properties near the convention center include the Disneyland Hotel, which last year added a pirate-themed suite that can be used for small meetings, and its sister property, Disney’s Grand Californian. Other popular options include the Hilton Anaheim, the Anaheim Marriott, the Hyatt Regency Orange County, the Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort, formerly the Coast Anaheim Hotel, and the Doubletree Guest Suites Anaheim Resort/Convention Center, which opened in February 2006.
There are also plenty of versatile off-site venues near the convention center. Downtown Disney offers a variety of choices, including the sports-themed ESPN Zone, which accommodates groups of up to 1,200 people. Adjacent to Angel Stadium, the Grove of Anaheim can handle everything from small conferences to product launches in spaces that include a palm-shaded courtyard, an Art Deco-inspired gallery and a showroom equipped with state-of-the-art audiovisual technology.
Buena Park
Adjacent to Anaheim, Buena Park is another Orange County community poised for a makeover.
“Our community development department and redevelopment agency have been buying up under-utilized parcels around town, places where there are currently old motels,” says Pattie Davidson, managing director of the Buena Park Convention and Visitors Office. “Within five years, we will see some real changes here, perhaps with new hotels, restaurants and retail.”
Buena Park, which does not have a convention center, primarily draws meetings to its three major hotels: the Knott’s Berry Farm Resort Hotel, the Holiday Inn Buena Park Hotel and the Radisson Suites Buena Park.
According to Davidson, Buena Park primarily markets itself to SMERF groups, especially encouraging this market to come during the fall and winter months.
“Summer is our busy season here, so fall and winter are the best times for planners to find good rates and availability,” she says.
For groups meeting anywhere in Orange County, Buena Park is often on the meetings agenda because of its attractions, including Knott’s Berry Farm, which offers a range of indoor and outdoor sites for small and large meetings. Popular event sites also include two dinner theater options that companies can buy out for team-building events: Pirate’s Dinner Adventure, which opened in December 2005, and Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament.
Costa Mesa
With Orange County’s premier shopping mall and performing arts center, Costa Mesa has plenty to offer groups within walking distance of eight first-class hotels that include a combined total of about 2,300 guest rooms and about 100,000 square feet of meeting space.
“Most planners are faced with cost restraints, and they don’t want to shuttle people to too many off-site venues,” says Smalley of the Costa Mesa Conference and Visitor Bureau and the Wyndham Orange County. “We have a lot of convenient options, including the South Coast Plaza mall and about 250 restaurants.”
Also a major draw is the Orange County Performing Arts Center, which features several venues for dance, music and theater. Last fall the center expanded with the addition of the 2,000-seat Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall as well as a smaller 500-seat theater and a 46,000-square-foot arts plaza.
“We’re really looking forward to using the expanded center for special events,” says Bisconte of Access Destination Services. “For example, it has a new rehearsal room with a stage that allows us to create whatever kind of theme event we want.”
Smalley adds that the Orange County Performing Arts Center has become a popular leisure-time option for groups.
“We’re noticing that more people are extending their stay to take in a major show on the weekend,” he says.
The Westin South Coast Plaza and the Wyndham Orange County are among Costa Mesa’s main meetings hotels.
Irvine
Along with a central location close to John Wayne International Airport and the attractions of Anaheim, Buena Park and Costa Mesa, Irvine offers a dozen meetings-friendly hotels convenient to the master-planned city’s many office parks. Home to more than 4,500 companies, Irvine does brisk corporate business midweek and has better availability for meetings on weekends.
Many Irvine hotels have invested in major upgrades, including the 289-room Hilton Irvine, which completed a $10 million renovation last summer and also became a smoke-free property. The renovation included enhancements to guest rooms, the property’s Crystal Ballroom and other areas of the hotel.
Under new ownership, the 293-room Embassy Suites Irvine–Orange County Airport will finish a $7 million renovation this spring. The project includes upgrades to guest units and meeting facilities.
Coastal Orange County
Glamorous beach communities and luxury resorts overlooking the Pacific are part of the considerable allure that coastal Orange County holds for meeting and leisure guests alike. As is true in the county’s inland communities, infrastructure improvements are making the coastal areas more appealing than ever.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Newport Beach, where close to $140 million in hotel renovations have taken place during the last two to three years.
Among the major projects are a $70 million makeover for the Newport Marriott Hotel and Spa, which was completed in January 2006 and included the addition of a large spa and luxury suites, and a $36 million renovation of the Fairmont Newport Beach (formerly the Sutton Place Hotel), which wrapped up last summer.
According to Gary Sherwin, president and CEO of the Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau, the hotel upgrades are enabling the city to attract more high-level corporate meetings than it has in the past.
“The big excitement now is that we finally have a hotel product that matches the destination,” he says. “We’re known as an upscale place, but, quite frankly, our hotels didn’t always reflect that.”
More high-end hotel inventory is on the way, with the Resort at Pelican Hill scheduled to open on the Newport coast by the end of 2008. The 204-room luxury property, which will be geared for small corporate meetings and incentives, will be adjacent to the Pelican Hill Golf Club.
Other meetings properties in Newport Beach include the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Tennis Club and the Balboa Bay Club and Resort.
In nearby Huntington Beach, development of a $90 million mixed-use complex called The Strand is scheduled for completion in spring 2008. Along with restaurants, shops and office space, The Strand will include a 150-room, meetings-friendly boutique hotel operated by San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre Hospitality.
Huntington Beach’s current lineup of meetings properties includes the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort and the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach.
Other coastal Orange County favorites among planners are the Surf and Sand Resort, the Montage Resort and Spa and the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort and Spa, all located in Laguna Beach, as well as The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Dana Point.
For More Info
Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau 714.765.8888
www.anaheimoc.org www.meetinanaheim.org
Buena Park Convention and Visitors Office 714.562.3560
www.visitbuenapark.com
Costa Mesa Conference and Visitor Bureau 714.435.8530
www.travelcostamesa.com
Dana Point COC and Visitor Center 949.496.1555
www.danapointvisitorcenter.com
Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau 714.969.3492
www.surfcityusa.com
Irvine COC 949.660.9112
www.destinationirvine.com
Laguna Beach Visitor and Conference Bureau 949.497.9229
www.lagunabeachinfo.org
Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau 949.719.6100
www.newportbeach-cvb.com
