The forward momentum continues in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, where once-dormant development projects are springing to life and group numbers are climbing out of recession doldrums.
New beach properties are a given here on the extreme end of Florida’s southeast coast, but downtown areas are also shimmering with possibilities while gaming venues and shopping enclaves are putting their creativity to work in order to lure more group business.
Miami
New York may be the city that doesn’t sleep, but Miami is the city that doesn’t stop…building. With multiple projects recently completed, including the newly opened SLS South Beach boutique property and the sleek new Aloft Miami-Brickell, the first Aloft in South Florida, Miami is poised to unveil more development news in 2013, spanning the worlds of hospitality, transportation and unique meeting venues.
“It’s just nonstop,” says Barry Moskowitz, vice president of convention and group sales for the Greater Miami CVB. “We’re constantly expanding options for all our visitors, including convention attendees.”
Start spreading the news because downtown Miami is challenging South Beach as the city’s preferred place to stay and play.
“South Beach went through a renaissance, and now it’s downtown’s turn,” Moskowitz says. “The sidewalks used to roll up at 5 p.m., but now that we’ve added 60,000 condo units, people not only work downtown, they live, eat and play there.”
And meet there as well, at a mix of venues that includes the 5,000-seat James L. Knight Center and adjacent Miami Conference Center as well as properties like the Mandarin Oriental, Epic Hotel, Four Seasons and the new JW Marriott Marquis, which also boasts its own hotel-within-a-hotel, the Beaux Arts, featuring 44 rooms and suites as well as access to the Marriott’s 80,000 square feet of meeting space.
After hours, groups can check out the action at the nearby American Airlines Arena, home to the 2012 NBA champs the Miami Heat, or explore emerging neighborhoods like Wynwood and the Design District, where interior design firms, architects, production studios, art galleries and luxury boutiques share sidewalk space with cutting-edge restaurants and cafes.
Downtown’s Brickell Business District, known for its dazzling high-rise commercial towers and business-minded properties like the Viceroy and the Conrad Miami, had a smattering of restaurants and virtually no shopping until Mary Brickell Village opened six years ago, bringing in new restaurants, lounges and shops for the after-5 and weekend crowds and unveiling the new Aloft property in December. PageBreak
Now the area is gearing up to welcome Brickell CityCentre, a billion-dollar mixed-use development that will include luxury shops, restaurants, a hotel, office towers and condominiums.
“[It is] probably the largest project in any metropolitan area at the current time,” Moskowitz says.
CitiCentre broke ground last summer and is expected to be completed in 2015.
Yet another development, the $640 million Island Gardens, recently green-lighted after a few years of dormancy, will be set on Watson Island just east of downtown Miami and encompass a mega-yacht marina, resort fractional residences, restaurants and two hotels.
Making the whole downtown renaissance even easier for visitors to experience is new rail service from the airport into downtown Miami’s Government Center Station, launched from the Miami Intermodal Center, a massive ground transportation hub set just east of MIA. Its ultimate goal is to provide connectivity to Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and the Florida Keys.
Another major downtown development, the $3.8 billion Resorts World Miami, a huge casino resort complex proposed by Malaysian-based Genting, was recently denied casino status and will revisit the issue again in 2014. However, Moskowitz says, the company will proceed with a resort in downtown Miami either way.
“They purchased a lot of waterfront property downtown, and they’re still going to move forward with their project, with or without casino gambling,” he says. “We should get a glimpse of what the complex will look like sometime in 2013.”
One casualty of that new development is the venerable Miami Herald building, which has risen over Biscayne Bay for 50 years and which local preservationists had hoped would be incorporated into the new resort following the building’s purchase by Genting in 2011.
“It’s coming down,” Moskowitz says.
West of downtown, another legendary local structure is getting a major makeover: the Doral Golf Resort & Spa, purchased by the Trump Organization in June 2012 and now part of the Trump Hotel Collection. The 800-acre resort is undergoing $200 million in capital improvements, including renovation of its fabled Blue Monster golf course as well as refurbishment of its vast ballrooms and meeting facilities. Upgrades to the resort’s 86,000 square feet of meeting space will start in late summer 2013 and conclude by fall of 2014, says Cari Farinas, Doral’s marketing manager.
“We’re working to deliver the level of service that people expect from the Trump brand,” she says.
Meanwhile, another Miami-area Trump property, the Trump International Beach Resort in Sunny Isles, recently opened a restaurant directly on the sand, Bella Beach. Farther south along the ocean, the Edition, boasting a nightclub, bowling alley and ice skating rink, is slated to open in the first quarter of 2014. PageBreak
Fort Lauderdale
In Greater Fort Lauderdale, Miami’s neighbor to the north, new projects are keeping pace with demand as group business took a big step forward in 2012.
“It’s been significantly stronger, with ‘definite’ [business] up 16 percent and tentative business opportunities 22 percent higher versus the previous year,” says Christine Roberts-Tascione, vice president of convention sales and services for the Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB. “2013 is off to a strong start. Convention business is strong in the first six months of the year, with significant demand for the latter part of the year.”
Meeting that demand is an eclectic variety of new properties, including the Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale Airport & Cruise Port, with 1,700 square feet of meeting space, and the B Ocean Fort Lauderdale, offering 8,000 square feet of function space. Meanwhile, a host of mainstay properties have unveiled major renovations, including the Westin Beach Resort & Spa, formerly the Sheraton Yankee Trader, which underwent a total transformation to emerge as a chic group destination with 432 rooms and 32,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event space.
Another Westin convention property, the historic Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, is adding a new Heavenly Spa in spring 2013, which will span 14,000 square feet on the first floor of the resort’s adjacent convention center.
Additionally, a key convention property to the west, the 23-acre Bonaventure Resort & Spa will undergo significant renovations in 2013, including public and event spaces and guest rooms. The 501-room resort’s golf course just reopened after a three-month, $2.5 million greens refurbishment.
About to make the jump from the drawing board to a street address are a number of other developments in Greater Fort Lauderdale, including the long-awaited Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort, which is in the midst of finalizing a financing deal with Starwood Capital to proceed with construction on the $130 million, 350-room hotel and restaurant complex.
“They have until spring to complete acquisition of the assets necessary to move forward with breaking ground on the project,” Roberts-Tascione says.
Heading toward a fall 2013 opening is the Marriott Pompano Beach Oceanfront, which will feature two towers, 219 guest rooms, 5,000 square feet of indoor meeting space and 3,000 square feet of outdoor event space.
Meanwhile, a pair of proposed developments could be a good bet for the region’s pari-mutuel/gaming industry, as Gulfstream Park, home of the Florida Derby, continues its evolution as a multifaceted recreation center following the recent opening of Village at Gulfstream Park, an open-air enclave of restaurants, nightclubs and fashion boutiques. Now Gulfstream is planning two properties that will flank the racetrack, each offering just under 300 rooms. Construction is scheduled to start in late 2013 and finish by late 2014 or early 2015.
“The goal is to transform the existing footprint of the Village, and along with the hotels and other family entertainment options, including a waterpark, turn it into a destination entertainment experience,” Roberts-Tascione says.
Meanwhile, following the completion of a $150 million expansion at the Seminole Coconut Creek Casino in 2012, a Seminole Tribe spokesperson says the next part of the master plan is the construction of a 1,000-room hotel on the site, though details and a timeline were not available at press time.
