Whether you’re talking about vacation treasures or literal gold and jewels, you’ll discover both in Palm Beach County and its neighbor to the north, the Treasure Coast.
No dating service could have matched a better pair than these two distinctively different destinations on Florida’s southern Atlantic coast—one a former getaway for Gilded Age snowbirds and now a gateway to Florida’s Gold Coast, a magnet for platinum card-carrying tourists and chauffeur-driven residents; the other a slow-paced slice of Old Florida, whose sun-washed towns are separated by parks and preserves populated only by birds and other wildlife.
Together they make an intriguing twosome, offering a very Floridian blend of glitz and simplicity, not to mention the facilities to suit any style of meeting or incentive group, whether the attire is a business suit or a bathing suit.
Palm Beach County
Before Palm Beach developed into the largest county southeast of the Mississippi, there was the island of Palm Beach, a 14-mile slip of land that became the southern terminus of Standard Oil magnate Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway in 1894. There, Flagler built the opulent Royal Poinciana Hotel, the fabled Breakers Hotel on the ocean and Whitehall, his private winter home (today a museum), turning Palm Beach into a stylish seasonal resort for upper-crust travelers.
While Flagler’s railroad would eventually make it all the way to Key West, Palm Beach continued to establish itself as the seasonal address of names like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Post, and later, Kennedy, Lennon and Ono, and Trump.
Today, though the opulence remains on the island of Palm Beach—with its magnificent mansions, lavish resorts and chic shopping enclaves—the vast county that spreads beyond it offers more than 16,000 hotel rooms in 200-plus hotels and resorts reflecting a range of styles and prices.
At the same time, the refined pastimes of turn-of-the-20th-century tourists—including croquet and polo—have expanded to include a vast array of attractions and activities, from exploring the nearby wilderness areas with Loxahatchee Everglades Tours to taking in the 19th and 20th century art and photography of Europe, America and China at the Norton Museum of Art.
Indeed, there’s plenty of substance beneath the style in Palm Beach County, especially when it comes to meetings and conventions, a growing segment of the destination’s tourism demographic, reports Jim Stuber, interim director for the Palm Beach County CVB. Stuber assumed the position in January following the retirement of the bureau’s longtime president and CEO, Warren “Mac” McLaughlin, and will return to his post as the CVB’s legal counsel once a permanent replacement for McLaughlin is installed sometime in July or August.
“We have plenty of good, solid, classic corporate meetings hotels,” Stuber says, referring to brands such as Hilton, Marriott, Radisson, Crowne Plaza, and on the more-moderate end, Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, SpringHill Suites, and a host of independent boutique and beachside properties.
Then there are the top-tier destination and meeting resorts Palm Beach County is famous for, including the legendary Breakers, with 560 rooms and 65,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space; the plush Boca Raton Resort and Club, offering 1,043 rooms and suites, as well as 146,000 square feet of function space; and the PGA National Resort and Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, with 339 rooms, 34,000 square feet of meeting facilities and five master-designed golf courses.
Also offering extensive meeting space in Palm Beach are the newly renovated Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach, featuring 11 meeting rooms that include two boardrooms; and the Four Seasons Palm Beach, boasting 209 guest rooms and suites plus a variety of meeting spaces, including ballrooms and boardrooms.
Until fairly recently, hotel- and resort-based meetings and conventions were the way to go in Palm Beach County, until the January 2004 grand opening of the $84 million, 350,000-square-foot Palm Beach County Convention Center, featuring 100,000 square feet of exhibit hall space, a 25,000-square-foot grand ballroom and 23,000 square feet of additional meeting space.
Thus far, the center’s brisk bookings have included everything from national trade shows to million-dollar art and boat exhibitions, and local corporate gatherings, Stuber reports.
“Three years into it, word of mouth is working very well for us, and we’re realizing it’s one of the finer facilities out there,” he adds. “And it still looks brand-new.”
Set on a 19-acre site three miles from Palm Beach International Airport, the center’s neighbors also make it a one-stop shop for both business and pleasure. Immediately adjacent to the center are CityPlace, a $600 million entertainment complex of shops, restaurants and clubs, and the acclaimed Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, which hosts a variety of musical and theatrical performances.
Meanwhile, directly across the street from the convention center is the 352-room West Palm Beach Marriott, though Stuber says an on-site Westin convention center hotel, to be developed by Ocean Properties, is due by 2010 or 2011.
Treasure Coast
Far from the crowds but close to the fun, Florida’s Treasure Coast sparkles in more ways than one. Anchored by Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Sebastian, and Stuart, this laid-back haven north of Palm Beach offers excellent diving, surfing and boating, as well as sport fishing, dozens of championship golf courses, unspoiled nature preserves, and of course, miles and miles of uncrowded beaches.
“Groups come here to get away from the traffic and hustle-bustle of the big cities,” says Odaly Victorio, marketing specialist and film commissioner for the St. Lucie County Tourist Development Council. “They can get away to quiet beaches before or after meeting days.”
Along with these vacation treasures are the literal ones—in the form of gold and silver lost during a hurricane in 1715, when 12 Spanish vessels went down. A salvage effort followed, but a great quantity of treasure remained undiscovered. Today, gold doubloons occasionally wash ashore or are found in wreck sites off the coast.
So if you see folks walking along the beach, their eyes trained on the sand instead of on the spectacular view, you’ll understand why.
Still, it would be a shame to miss the many recreational gems along the Treasure Coast, starting with Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the nation’s first national wildlife refuge, which is home to over 30 species of birds that use Pelican Island as a rookery, roost, feeding ground, and general lounging area.
Don’t forget to pick up some Indian River citrus while your group is here; you’ll find oranges and grapefruit for sale in Vero Beach and other locales, while Vero Beach’s Citrus Museum tells the story of the region’s still-thriving fruit industry.
Spanning the length of St. Lucie County is North and South Hutchinson Island, where you’ll find some of the best beaches along the Treasure Coast, many of which welcome horseback riding, arranged through the St. Lucie County Parks and Recreation Department.
And then there’s Major League Baseball spring training, a Treasure Coast tradition featuring the L.A. Dodgers at Dodgertown in Vero Beach—a facility that also includes meeting space and overnight accommodations—and the New York Mets at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie.
When it’s time to get down to business, though, planners will find a wealth of options for meetings on the Treasure Coast, with hotel-based meeting space at brands like Best Western, Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn, along with resorts like Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, with meeting and banquet facilities for small groups, and Club Med Sandpiper, with conference facilities for up to 500 people.
If golf is on the agenda, the PGA Country Club—part of Port St. Lucie’s PGA Village—welcomes corporate events and banquets, while two partner hotels, the new Hilton Garden Inn and the MainStay Suites, offer facilities for small to midsize groups.
For More Info
Palm Beach County CVB 561.233.3000
www.palmbeachfl.com
Indian River County COC 772.567.3491
www.indianriverchamber.com
St. Lucie County TDC 772.462.1539
www.visitstluciefla.com
