With a possible mega-casino resort on the horizon and other properties and attractions newly opened or on the way in 2012, Miami and Fort Lauderdale are running neck and neck toward pre-recession visitor and development figures.
“Compared to 2010, 2011 was a great year for us,” reports Christine Tascione, CMP, vice president of convention and group sales for the Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB.
Meanwhile, Barry Moskowitz, vice president of convention sales for the Greater Miami CVB, says the city is on a roll development-wise.
“Miami is one of the few places in Florida that’s doing very well as far as new-build.”
Popular for their posh resorts, international dining scenes, nightlife that outlasts the night and skyscrapers by the sea, Miami and Fort Lauderdale also boast thriving cruise ports and a regular influx of visitors from Latin America and the Caribbean, which helps maintain strong visitor numbers and keeps the local tourism scene humming.
miami
Convention groups are a big chunk of the tourism pie, though, and both cities are vying to boost those figures as well, with Miami looking forward to a busy 2012 after wrapping an active year of city-wide and medical conventions.
“We’re gearing up to welcome a slew of new conventions this year,” Moskowitz says, referencing, among others, the American Fence Association, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Best Buy and Mary Kay, not to mention a host of special events, including Miami’s first visit from Wrestlemania, which will utilize the city’s three largest venues: the Miami Beach Convention Center, the AmericanAirlines Arena and Sun Life Stadium (formerly Dolphin Stadium).
Equally busy are the construction cranes in Miami, as one new project after another opens its doors, including a new stadium for MLB’s Miami Marlins, due to open in March on the site of the old Orange Bowl.
Making its debut in January was the long-anticipated St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort, set on the beach across from tony Bal Harbour Shops and offering 243 rooms and 11,200 square feet of meeting space. Targeted for a spring opening is the SLS Hotel at South Beach, a southeast satellite to SLS’s flagship Beverly Hills property, with 132 rooms and a design by Philippe Starck, while the James Royal Palm on South Beach, the brand’s first Florida hotel, is slated to open in late 2012 with 179 rooms, 211 studios and suites and over 10,000 square feet of meeting and event space.
Another brand coming to Miami is Edition, a venture between Marriott and local legend Ian Schrager, the hotelier who helped reinvigorate South Beach by opening the Delano in 1995. Tentatively scheduled to debut in 2013, the new boutique property is taking over the space once occupied by the 12-story Seville Beach Hotel, originally built in 1955.
Meanwhile, other properties have undergone multimillion-dollar renovations, including the Eden Roc Renaissance Miami Beach, downtown’s Four Seasons Hotel, and—just in time for its 50th anniversary in 2012—the Doral Golf Resort & Spa, which recently put the wraps on a $16 million resort-wide renewal that included the addition of a new golf course and a new steakhouse, as well as spa renovations.
The biggest buzz as far as new hotels, though, goes to a massive casino resort project planned for downtown Miami—if it receives the official green light, that is. The $3.8 billion Resorts World Miami, proposed by Malaysian firm Genting, has been envisioned as a “gambling paradise” on Biscayne Bay. The 14-acre complex would include 5,200 hotel rooms, 1,000 residential apartments, a water lagoon the size of 12 Olympic swimming pools, more than 50 restaurants and bars, 700,000 square feet of meeting space and two casinos that claim to feature more gambling space than Las Vegas’ six biggest casinos combined.
The snag? The ban on gambling in Florida outside of Native American tribal lands, a prohibition that would be overturned by the Destination Resorts Act, currently under deliberation in the state’s capital.
“It’s all pending legislation,” Moskowitz says. “Nothing really is going to move forward until it comes out of Tallahassee with a yay or nay.”
In the meantime, Miami is making do with ongoing improvements, not just in hospitality, but transportation, as the new Miami Intermodal Center will expand on its existing rental car and rail service to include connectivity with Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and the Florida Keys by 2013.
Additionally, new restaurants continue opening on South Beach, downtown and throughout the city, while Miami’s art scene took a major step forward with the recent opening of the $51 million South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center. Meanwhile, the Miami Art Museum has broken ground on a new bayfront facility that will anchor a 29-acre Museum Park of public gardens and sculpture installations.
“It’s pretty amazing what’s taking place down here,” Moskowitz says. “It’s a great position to be in and we’re thrilled.”
Fort Lauderdale
The folks in Greater Fort Lauderdale, Miami’s neighbor to the north, are pretty thrilled as well, considering that group numbers are on the up and up.
“Our fall numbers were outstanding in some areas, and our convention hotels saw double-digit growth,” reports the CVB’s Tascione, who noted that associations along with corporate business from Latin America were the biggest growth markets, though she saw improvement across the board.
“Over the last three years, people were cutting back and now companies are sending more people [to conventions],” she says. “We have a convention coming in a few weeks, and they’ve completely filled their block so we’re adding 10 percent to their room block. It’s been a while since we’ve had to do that.”
Tascione also notes an uptick in last-minute bookings as 2011 ended with major conventions reserving space for this June, August and November.
“We’re really positive about 2012; the first half of the year is really solid,” she says. “The bad news is we still have some space to fill toward the end of the year, but we’re optimistic we can do it.”
Another cause for optimism is dormant hotel projects starting to show signs of life, including an expansion at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel Hollywood and a possible new property at the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek in the northern part of the county.
“There were a number of projects that were tabled, but now that financing terms are a little more palatable for developers, we’re starting to hear about feasibility studies,” Tascione says. “I think 2012 will be the year that some of this starts to solidify.”
Moving forward for sure is the Margaritaville Beach Resort on Hollywood Beach, expected to break ground in the first quarter of 2012 and open in early 2014. The 350-room property will feature a beachside band shell, seven on-property restaurants (including a Margaritaville Cafe), mega-pools and slides, a full-service spa and 30,000 square feet of meeting and event space.
It will join several recently opened properties, including B Ocean Fort Lauderdale, with 240 rooms and 8,000 square feet of meeting space, and the 62-room Royal Palms Resort & Spa, touted as North America’s largest luxury gay hotel, which opened last April steps from Fort Lauderdale Beach.
Meanwhile, the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort has emerged from a renovation that modernized public spaces, guest rooms, the business and fitness centers, and meeting facilities that include a ballroom and six meeting rooms.
With gaming on the table in Miami, Greater Fort Lauderdale—which allows slot action at local pari-mutuels—is keeping an eye on the situation, Tascione says.
“I think it will attract interest to the destination,” she says. “There’s definitely a market for gaming groups. Even when people aren’t gambling, they still like to experience the ambience of a casino.”
The area’s own Gulfstream Park, home to a number of Triple Crown prep races, including the Florida Derby, has morphed from racetrack to entertainment center with the addition of a casino featuring slots, poker and electronic table games, and the recently opened Village at Gulfstream Park, an outdoor streetscape of shopping, dining and entertainment, directly adjacent to the famed racetrack.
“It’s become a nice destination, with restaurants continuing to open,” Tascione says. “We’re seeing a lot of demand for the shopping and dining-type attractions,” she adds, pointing to the ever-expanding Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise, a mega-complex of outlet stores and national retailers, surrounded by hotels and set very close to the BankAtlantic Center, a sports and performance venue.
Toward the east, anyone meeting at the Broward County Convention Center and its surrounding hotels, including the Embassy Suites and the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six, will be close to shopping and dining, with the popular Las Olas Boulevard entertainment promenade about 15 minutes away.
