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.
Miami’s Golden Girls
The epitome of 1950s Miami Beach glamour ever since it 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 early 2010 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 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.
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.
New dining options at Camelback Inn include BLT Steak, a contemporary steakhouse created by nationally acclaimed Chef Laurent Tourondel. 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 that 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 now sports 300 renovated casita-style guest rooms and new landscaped courtyards with fire pits, an herb garden, a 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.
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 a 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 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.
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.
