PHILADELPHIA
Mayor Michael A. Nutter affirmed his commitment to attract a new, anchor hotel to Philadelphia to serve the newly expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center. In 2011, over 2.77 million room nights were sold, which is the most ever in Philadelphia’s history.
“Less than one year ago, we welcomed the opening of the newly expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center, and we’ve already started to see its impact,” said Mayor Nutter. “This Center can hold two major conventions at the same time, but we need increased hotel infrastructure that can support the increased demand. Philadelphia needs new hotel rooms to support the expanded Convention Center, which is the City’s gateway to North Broad Street.”
The Convention Center expansion, completed last March, resulted in bringing the building's total to more than one million square feet of saleable space. This allows the center to host mega tradeshows, or two conventions, simultaneously. According to the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (PCVB), the center has booked 225 meetings and conventions for 2012, with over 565,000 total hotel room nights.
Since the start of the Convention Center expansion project, there have been 525 new hotel rooms added to Philadelphia’s downtown hotel market. An additional 650 rooms are under construction in Center City and University City, adding 1,175 new rooms by 2013. This brings Philadelphia more than halfway to the goal of 2,000 new rooms in the downtown market, and an additional 1,000 new hotel rooms are under construction.
