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.
Elegance in Indiana
The glories of an earlier era are resplendent at the French Lick Casino Resort in French Lick, Ind., where the destination resort with two turn-of-the-20th-century properties, the West Baden Springs Hotel and French Lick Springs Hotel, completed a $500 million restoration and casino development project in 2007.
The resort features 689 guest rooms; a casino; 45 holes of golf, including a restored course designed by Donald Ross in 1917 and a new course designed by Pete Dye; two full-service spas with a combined total of 36 treatment rooms; and 115,000 square feet of meeting space.
According to Director of Marketing Mark Bammarito, meetings, especially those from state associations, have proven to be a large part of the resort’s business. While the Beaux Arts-style French Lick Springs Hotel, where the bulk of the meeting space is located, tends to draw association groups, the West Baden Springs property is positioned more for smaller, upscale corporate groups.
“We’re targeting high-end corporate and incentive business, but we have not been able to tap into this market as much as we would like,” Bammarito says. “The problem is that people don’t think of southern Indiana as a resort destination. Once we get them here, however, they see that we’re a world-class resort.”
While the restoration brought modern technology to the resort, vintage touches such as a 1930 Rolls Royce used to transport guests to the hotels and historic themed events are part of its appeal, Bammarito adds.
“We can do golf events where people get to try the old hickory golf clubs or have barbecues out by the stables with an Old West theme,” he says.
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 says. “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 message there 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.
