Baton Rouge
Shreveport-Bossier City
- The 293-room Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center (225.344. 5866; www.hiltoncapitolcenter.com), with 18,000 square feet of meeting space, opened Aug. 30, 2006, following a $70 million restoration of the former Heidelberg and Capitol House hotels.
- At press time, a 348-room Renaissance Hotel (www.marriott.com) was about to break ground across from the Mall of Louisiana, six miles from downtown Baton Rouge off Interstate 10. The property, which is expected to open in late 2008, will feature 12,000 square feet of meeting space.
- University Inn and Conference Center (225.236.4000; www.batonrougeci.com), located one mile from Louisiana State University and four miles from downtown Baton Rouge, will be reflagged a Red Lion hotel following the completion of a renovation later this summer. The property has more than 5,000 square feet of meeting space.
Shreveport-Bossier City
- The Hilton Shreveport (318.698.0900; www.hilton.com) opened in June. Connected to the 350,000-square-foot Shreveport Convention Center, which debuted in early 2006, the hotel offers 313 guest rooms and nearly 2,000 square feet of meeting space.
- Last November, the Sci-Port Discovery Center (318.424.3466; www.sciport.org) in downtown Shreveport unveiled its $11.6 million, 25,000-square-foot Space Center, featuring an open-access, interactive planetarium, a rooftop observatory and a star-gazing deck.