Bahamas
Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino made a $1.5 million update to its 8,435-square-foot grand ballroom. The meeting space renovation was part of a four-year, $51 million property-wide renovation. The ballroom’s hard and soft goods were updated, including lighting, banquet tables, prefunction space, carpeting and woodworking.
Florida
Westin Orlando Universal Boulevard opened the Lotus Ballroom, a new meeting and special event center that adds more than 5,300 square feet of function space to the property. The ballroom has floor-to-ceiling windows and is located next to the hotel’s free-form outdoor pool. The 315-room property now offers 13,500 square feet of meeting space.
Radisson Resort Orlando–Celebration completed a $10 million renovation, updating guest rooms, event spaces and public areas. The 718-room hotel is half a mile from the Walt Disney Resort and runs free all-day shuttle service. The resort includes 6,800 square feet of convention space.
The new-build Cambria Suites Miami Airport–Blue Lagoon opened with 122 guest rooms and 1,000 square feet of meeting space. The hotel is less than five miles from Miami International Airport.
Metropolitan by COMO, Miami Beach opened in March with 74 guest rooms within a 1930s Art Deco building. The beachfront hotel offers private pool cabanas, a dock on the Intracoastal Waterway, and a rooftop spa. A private dining room can host group meals and small meetings.
Georgia
The 150-room Embassy Suites Savannah is now open in the city’s historic district. The hotel offers 5,600 square feet of meeting space.
Texas
Houston’s second convention center hotel, the Houston Marriott Marquis, will break ground this month. The 1,100-room hotel will be built directly across from the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston and is scheduled to open in 2016. The Hilton Americas–Houston, the existing convention hotel, opened in 2007 and offers 1,200 guest rooms. Both properties are attached to the convention center by pedestrian skybridges.
A planned $45 million project in Dallas will create a new Dream boutique hotel in Dallas’ Uptown district, with meeting spaces and 128 guest rooms. Led by Hyphen Construction, the project is scheduled to break ground this summer and be completed by December 2015.
South carolina
Crowne Plaza Greenville completed a full, $5 million renovation. The hotel offers 6,500 square feet of meeting space, including a 4,200-square-foot grand ballroom and two new boardrooms.