What becomes a legend most? In the case of some of the nation’s most historic resort hotels, a multimillion-dollar makeover that preserves the past while paying heed to the present is essential to ensuring its future as a meetings site.
With this in mind, a number of hotel operators and developers have recently made substantial investments in giving new sparkle to resorts whose hallowed halls have sheltered everyone from presidents to legends of the silver screen. In some cases, the resorts had been shuttered for decades and required monumental restoration, while others primarily needed some major updating to stay competitive in a new era.
Scottsdale Original
What septuagenarian doesn’t want to appear a bit younger and au courant? Certainly that’s true of the Camelback Inn, a JW Marriott Resort & Spa, which opened back in the 1930s and has just undergone a $50 million renovation. The work involved replacing the original ballroom with a new 20,000-square-foot Grand Ballroom sporting 24-foot ceilings, expansive foyers and adjacent outdoor terraces with views of Mummy Mountain.
“We recognize that the needs of groups have changed over the years, so we wanted to give groups more space for social networking, which is often where the real business gets done,” says Clark Albright, director of sales and marketing. “Another priority was to retool the restaurants and up the quality of all food and beverage at the resort.”
New dining options at Camelback Inn include BLT Steak, a contemporary steakhouse created by nationally acclaimed chef Laurent Tourondel and featuring reclaimed mesquite wood floors and views of Camelback Mountain. The restaurant includes two private dining rooms, accommodating 50 people in each, as well as an outside courtyard where private dinners for up to 30 guests can be held.
As with any historic property, the renovation was a more complicated endeavor than it would be at a newer resort. Work on the main building included the use of authentic adobe bricks to match the original building materials.
“It was a challenge, but we found a man in Tucson who was able to create the original adobe recipe, which is a combination of clay, straw and water that’s left out to bake in the summer heat,” Albright said. “We were just trying to be historically correct, but it turns out we were being green as well.”
The Camelback Inn, a personal favorite of Marriott International CEO Bill Marriott, who vacations there every spring with his family, now sports 300 renovated casita-style guest rooms and new landscaped courtyards with fire pits, an herb garden, bocce ball court and a collection of bronze bells by architect Paolo Soleri. Adjacent to the hacienda-style lobby is the Arizona Discovery Room with books on local history and photographs of such guests as John F. Kennedy, Bing Crosby, Bette Davis and Clark Gable.
Keystone Springs
George Washington may not have slept there, but the elderly and infirm Thomas Jefferson was known to have journeyed to the south-central Pennsylvania town of Bedford to take the waters at the Bedford Springs Resort. Future presidents hosted by the 212-year-old resort include James Buchanan, who received the first-ever transatlantic cable in 1858—from Queen Victoria.
Today the resort, which closed down in the 1980s and reopened in 2007 after a $120 million restoration that took several years to complete, prides itself on being a state-of-the-art conference destination while showcasing its stately architecture and storied past.
Managed by Benchmark Hospitality, new features at Bedford Springs include a 20,000-square-foot, IACC-sanctioned conference center and an up-to-the-minute spa designed around the resort’s eight natural mineral springs.
“We match the Old World with the new and really do provide the best of both,” says Courtney Lowe, director of sales and marketing for the resort. “We provide a quality conference experience, with ergonomic chairs and flat screens in all the meeting rooms. Yet history is always around you as well.”
While guests at the 216-room resort, which is a National Historic Landmark and sits on 2,200 acres, will find docking stations for their iPods and wireless connectivity in their rooms, they will also find hallways lined with historic photographs and wide porches with rocking chairs overlooking the grounds.
“Even our golf course, which dates back to the beginnings of golf in America and was designed Donald Ross, a leading golf architect of the time, is historic,” Lowe says.
Miami’s Golden Girls
The epitome of 1950s Miami Beach glamour ever since they opened, the neighboring Eden Roc and Fontainebleau hotels have stepped back into the spotlight after extensive makeovers.
For Eden Rock, A Renaissance Beach Resort & Spa, the $200 million renovation and expansion included the addition of the 282-room Ocean Tower, which features 14,000 square feet of new meeting space, and the refurbishment of the original Resort Tower.
When the hotel opened, it immediately became known as a place where guests could enjoy entertainment from the likes of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Desi Arnaz. While its Rat Pack-era ambience has been preserved with the renovation, Director of Sales Olivia Pritchard says the updated hotel is far more meetings friendly than it was in the old days.
“The needs of our guests have changed because you didn’t have the convention business back then that you have today,” she says. “Our two ballrooms were once supper clubs. Now they have been completely updated. Plus, we’ve added new outdoor space by revamping our pool deck and making it conducive for business events as well as leisure.”
Now offering 631 rooms and 46,000 square feet of meeting space, Eden Roc is pursuing an expanded array of meetings, including association business.
“We have the breakout space many association groups require, plus with the two towers we can have two meetings of 250 people going on at the same time without anyone getting in each other’s way,” Prichard says.
The finishing touch on the renovation will be the opening of the Spa of Eden, featuring 17 treatment rooms and a fitness center. New features already added to the hotel include the Cabana Beach Club, which offers beachside alfresco dining, and Gia Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar, a fine dining restaurant offering both small and big plate selections.
Along with new features, the renovation took care to preserve the hotel’s distinctive architectural touch, according to Pritchard.
“Miami Beach has very strict guidelines about what you can and cannot do,” she says. “So the lobby still has its gorgeous black and white terrazzo marble floors with the fleur- de-lys design. The lobby has two-story Brazilian rosewood columns that we could not touch, so we designed a new bar around them.”
As a nod to the past, the lobby also features a collage devoted to Rat Pack-era icons. Not surprisingly, events held at Eden Roc often include impersonators depicting Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Frank Sinatra and other celebrities from the 1950s and ’60s who are associated with the resort.
“The 1950s theme is very popular with groups—even if people didn’t grow up in that era, they still feel a connection with it,” Pritchard says.
The Fontainebleau, once the largest beachfront hotel in the country with 850 rooms, has expanded to 1,504 rooms and now offers 107,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, including three ballrooms.
The $500 million makeover brought two new towers, a spa and a meticulous restoration of the original hotel, including the famous bow-tie themed lobby designed by Morris Lapidus in 1954.
