Major cities in the southern half of Ohio are on a roll. Cincinnati, benefiting from downtown revitalization and convention center expansion, is attracting more and more high-profile gatherings, while Columbus, the capital, is expanding its meetings capabilities.
Packed with attractions and entertainment districts in rejuvenated city cores, they are now turning their development focus to expanding riverfront opportunities, transformations that will materialize in 2012.
Cincinnati Area
Surrounded by hills and across the Ohio River from Kentucky, Cincinnati is the Buckeye State’s largest metro area and third-largest city, home to nine Fortune 500 companies.
The Queen City is "On a Roll and Ready to Rock." That was the title the Cincinnati USA CVB chose for its 2009 annual report, which revealed a fifth consecutive year with growth in future group room nights booked.
According to Barrie Perks, the CVB’s vice president, sales and services, the theme continues.
"We have a central location, we’re easy to get to, we’re affordable, and we have a compact downtown with much to offer," he says. "We have been making a comeback and have been aggressive in building attendance."
He explains that 2006 was the city’s turning point—when "momentum started."
That summer saw the $135 million expansion of downtown’s Duke Energy Convention Center, which has 200,000 square feet of exhibit space, a 40,000-square-foot grand ballroom and more than 30 meeting rooms. It is flanked by $2 billion in new infrastructure and investment, which includes the restored Fountain Square entertainment hub, where the CVB unveiled a new visitor center in July.
Within a three-block radius of the convention center are 3,000 hotel rooms. Connected by skywalks are a Hyatt Regency, a Westin and a Millennium, which together have 86,000 square feet of meeting space. Nearby, the historic Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza has another 40,000 square feet of meeting space.
A slew of attractions provide off-site options. Among them are the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Contemporary Arts Center, the Taft Museum of Art, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the Cincinnati Museum Center and the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. Last year, the zoo opened the $19.6 million Historic Vine Street Village, a new entrance complex that helped it achieve the U.S. Green Building Council’s top accolade: the LEED Platinum certificate.
Groups also have a choice of several vessels, with the largest, the riverboat Belle of Cincinnati, handling receptions for 1,000.
Along downtown’s riverfront are the Great American Ball Park, home to the MLB Reds, and the NFL Bengals’ Paul Brown Stadium. Under construction between the two, The Banks mixed-use project will feature up to 3 million square feet of office, residential, retail, restaurant and hotel space, and a 45-acre park. The first phase opens next spring.
Across the river, the Northern Kentucky CVB markets itself as the "Southern Side of Cincinnati," with its own convention center, the Newport Aquarium and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
Downtown Cincinnati is getting two new properties with meeting space in remodeled historic buildings: 21c Museum Hotels, with a 160-room hotel expected to open in the Metropole Building in 2012, and Residence Inn Cincinnati Downtown, opening next April in the Phelps Building.
Perks notes that the new hotels and The Banks will open in time for the region’s largest group ever: the 7th World Choir Games, the world’s biggest choir competition. Held over 10 days in July 2012, with an expected 20,000 particpants and many thousands more spectators, it takes place every two years, this past July in Shaoxing, China.
The suburban city of Sharonville, 15 miles north of downtown, broke ground in November on the renovation and expansion of the Sharonville Convention Center. Slated for a first phase completion next June and final completion in March 2012, its meeting and exhibit space will be increased from 28,000 square feet to 65,000 square feet.
Adjacent to the convention center are CoCo Key Water Resort, a 50,000-square-foot indoor waterpark, and the 257-room Crowne Plaza Cincinnati North (the former Sheraton Cincinnati North, rebranded in November), with 18,000 square feet of event space.
Mason/Dayton
Mason, 26 miles northeast of downtown, boasts attractions such as the Kings Island amusement park and the nearby 401-room Great Wolf Lodge, with a 40,000-square-foot conference center and an indoor waterpark.
About 30 miles north of Mason is Dayton, "Birthplace of Aviation" and hometown of Orville and Wilbur Wright and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
"We’re centrally located at the crossroads of two interstates," says Bev Rose, marketing director at the Dayton/Montgomery County CVB. "We get lots of military reunions and youth and amateur sports events, and annual events that bring in thousands. Our aerospace industry gives us a good base, and our group and convention business has held pretty steady."
The Dayton Convention Center, connected by skywalk to the 283-room Crowne Plaza, offers another 12,000 square feet of meeting space, and a few blocks away is the Doubletree Dayton Downtown. The 399-room Dayton Marriott, the largest meetings hotel, has 14,000 square feet of meeting space.
North of the convention center, RiverScape MetroPark along the Great Miami River recently opened a 1,000-seat pavilion for community events as part of a $6.2 million expansion. Nearby is the Fifth Third Field, home of the Dayton Dragons Minor League Baseball team.
According to Rose, the must-see is the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, with 400 aircraft on display, including presidential aircraft. Other attractions include the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Park and the Schuster Performing Arts Center.
Among the destination’s other venues are the IACC-certified Sinclair Center, the Hara Arena Conference & Exhibition Center and the Expo Center at Dayton International Airport.
Columbus Area
Columbus, Ohio’s largest city, is halfway between Cleveland in the north and Cincinnati. In 2012, Columbus will celebrate its bicentennial.
The Greater Columbus Convention Center, located downtown, offers more than 426,000 square feet of exhibit space and more than 60 meeting rooms.
"From the convention center you can walk out to the Arts and Arena districts, where there are 250 restaurants," says Brian Ross, vice president of sales at Experience Columbus, the Greater Columbus CVB. "You don’t need a taxi. We offer value and we’re affordable."
A July groundbreaking was held for a new convention center headquarters hotel: the $140 million, 532-room Hilton Columbus Downtown, scheduled to open in fall 2012 with 22,800 square feet of meeting space, including a 12,000-square-foot ballroom.
Coinciding with the event, the Southern Baptists announced Columbus for their June 2015 convention, expected to draw 16,000 attendees, which they said could not have been considered without the Hilton’s rooms.
"We’ll be more competitive. We’ll be able to attract national associations that we didn’t have the rooms to support and to retain return groups that were beginning to outgrow us," Ross says.
Also, as part of a $40 million center renovation, the center recently unveiled the 50,000-square-foot Battelle Grand Ballroom and a 24,000-square-foot ballroom mezzanine, which Ross says is multipurpose and upscale compared to the old Battelle Hall it replaced.
According to Ross, with the Hilton there will be 2,090 rooms connected or adjacent to the center, another 700 within a 10-minute walk, and 3,700 in total in the downtown area.
Among the half dozen hotels adjacent or connected to the center is the 631-room Hyatt Regency, reached by enclosed walkway, with 63,000 square feet of meeting space.
More meeting space was added in April with the opening of the new $118 million, 300,000-square-foot Ohio Union at Ohio State University. Just north of downtown and built to LEED standards, it features 34 meeting spaces and can accommodate groups of up to 1,700.
In May, the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium unveiled Polar Frontier, a new polar bear exhibit.
The Grange Insurance Audubon Center opened in August 2009 a mile from downtown along the Scioto River. Located on Whittier Peninsula, a sanctuary for migrating birds, the center has meeting space that includes a multipurpose conference room that seats 200 and together with its grounds can handle functions for 500.
Work is under way on the Scioto Mile, which will provide a green corridor connecting
the Arena District with the river and Audubon Center. Being developed as part of the city’s 2012 Bicentennial Celebration, it will feature parks, boulevards, water features, plazas and bike and pedestrian paths.
Last year, a $56 million, 10,000-seat ballpark opened two blocks from the convention center: Huntington Park, the new home of the Triple A Columbus Clippers. Across from it is the 20,000-seat Nationwide Arena, home of the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets.
Downtown’s historic Lincoln Theater held its grand reopening Memorial Day 2009 following an $11 million restoration. And within the last three years properties such as the Westin Columbus, the Columbus Renaissance, and the Holiday Inn Columbus Downtown Capitol Square have completed major renovations.
Two meetings-ready properties opened last year at Port Columbus International Airport: the 198-suite Embassy Suites Columbus-Airport and the 110-room Four Points by Sheraton Columbus Airport.
Among the city’s other large venues are the 110,000-square-foot Franklin County Veterans Memorial and the 1 million-square-foot Ohio Expo Center, home to the Ohio State Fair.
Tony Bartlett is a frequent contributor to Meetings East.
