Northern Ohio stretches from Toledo near the Michigan border in the west through the playgrounds of the Lake Erie coast and the northeast’s Cleveland hub, with Akron and Canton to the south. The region has been booming with activity recently, from Cleveland’s impressive new group venues and attractions, Akron’s new hotels and a wealth of casinos and other draws in-between.
Greater Cleveland
Shaking off the vestiges of an industrial past, Cleveland has put its money on northeast Ohio’s growing medical and biotech sector. Last year, the Buckeye State’s second-largest city after Columbus unveiled a new downtown convention center. With it came an attached permanent medical mart that it hopes will help attract more medical meetings and ensure the facility’s success.
The new Cleveland Convention Center and Global Center for Health Innovation are connected by underground concourse. They are built on the site of a convention facility that dated to the 1920s and hosted its last business in fall 2010. Work is now under way on a new convention center hotel.
Owned by Cuyahoga County, the centers are managed by SMG, the country’s largest convention center operator, and were built to LEED Silver standards. The convention center “has truly put Cleveland back on the map as a convention destination,” announced Gregg Caren, executive vice president, SMG Convention and Exhibition Centers, when SMG was appointed last October.
The $465 million project is the largest in downtown Cleveland history. The 750,000-square-foot convention center opened last June on the shores of Lake Erie. Boasting lakefront views, it includes 226,000 square feet of exhibit space divisible into three and 93,000 square feet of meeting space. The 235,000-square-foot, four-floor Global Center for Health, which held its official ribbon cutting in October, has showrooms and an 11,000-square-foot ballroom.
According to David Gilbert, president and CEO of Positively Cleveland, the city’s CVB, Cleveland is now much more attractive as a meetings destination.
“It has larger capacity. We’re able to book more citywide conventions,” Gilbert says. “And the Global Center connection opens the door for us to bring in more medical-related conventions and meetings.
“Everyone knows Cleveland is a terrific tourism destination with world-renowned arts and culture, unmatched rock and roll music roots, a nationally recognized culinary scene and affordable pricing,” he adds. “With a new high-tech, fully equipped convention center, we’re able to showcase these assets in a whole new way and to a new audience.”
He also adds that there has been an ever-growing interest in Cleveland’s International Exposition Center (I-X Center). With more than 1 million square feet of rentable space, it is adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, 15 minutes from downtown.
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Next to the Cleveland Convention Center and Global Center for Health Innovation, a 600-room Hilton-managed hotel is slated to open in 2016 with 55,000 square feet of meeting space.
Meanwhile, the 484-room Westin Cleveland Downtown, formerly the Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Center, is scheduled to open this month next to the convention center following a $64 million renovation. The property features more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space.
Positively Cleveland estimates that the Hilton and Westin, together with four new hotels opening by 2016 in historic buildings, will increase downtown’s hotel room supply by 56 percent.
Last year, Drury Hotels acquired the Cleveland Board of Education building and plans to convert it to the 180-room Drury Plaza by late 2015. The Schofield Building is being transformed into a Kimpton hotel, opening in 2016.
In January 2016, two properties will debut on Euclid Avenue: the 206-room Le Meridien Cleveland, with more than 12,000 square feet of meeting space, and the 156-room Metropolitan, a Marriott International Autograph Collection affiliate, which will have 12,000 square feet of meeting space and be situated in the former AmeriTrust Bank complex.
Meanwhile, several new hotels have already opened, including the 150-room Aloft Cleveland Downtown, located one mile from the convention center and featuring more than 3,100 square feet of meeting space; the 135-room Aloft Beachwood, situated 12 miles east of downtown and offering a 1,800-square-foot ballroom; and the 153-room Courtyard Marriott Cleveland University Circle, featuring 2,000 square feet of meeting space.
Packed with group options, University Circle, four miles from downtown, features such museums and cultural institutions as the Cleveland Botanical Garden, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Children’s Museum of Cleveland, Severance Hall (home to the Cleveland Orchestra), the Western Reserve Historical Society, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art, which recently completed an eight-year, $350 million renovation and expansion.
Downtown, too, has impressive attractions. Just north of the convention center, North Coast Harbor includes FirstEnergy Stadium (home of the Cleveland Browns), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum and the Great Lakes Science Center. It also has Playhouse Square, a performing arts center that includes five restored historic theaters and is second only to New York’s Lincoln Center in size.
The city is also home to numerous new attractions.
About a half-mile south of the convention center in the Higbee Building on Public Square is Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, which opened in 2012 with 1,900 slots, 89 table games, a 30-table poker room and dining options. It is connected to The Ritz-Carlton, Cleveland and the Renaissance Cleveland.
In April of last year, the $88 million ThistleDown Racino opened 10 miles southeast of downtown with more than 1,000 slots and six dining and entertainment facilities, including a banquet room. The ThistleDown thoroughbred racetrack project is a joint venture of Rock Gaming and Caesars Entertainment.
Additionally, Hard Rock Rocksino at Northfield Park recently opened midway between Cleveland and Akron. The 200,000-square-foot gaming and entertainment destination features Hard Rock Live and a wealth of dining options, while harness racing is available at Northfield Park.
Meanwhile, the 70,000-square-foot Greater Cleveland Aquarium opened in 2012 in the century-old FirstEnergy Powerhouse, located at the West Bank of the Flats. The aquarium boasts more than 5,000 fish, one million gallons of water, 42 tanks and event space, and is adjacent to Windows on the River catering facility, which has ballrooms.
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Akron
Forty miles south of Cleveland and home to Goodyear is Akron and Summit County, which will grow its hotel inventory by 10 percent this year.
Four properties will open in the region in 2014, including the 139-room Hilton Garden Inn East Akron, the 80-room Residence Inn by Marriott Akron/South Green, the 107-room Residence Inn by Marriott Montrose, and the 103-unit Homewood Suites.
The city’s primary convention venue is downtown’s 123,000-square-foot John S. Knight Center, which is managed by the Akron/Summit CVB. The CVB also manages Greystone Hall, a former Masonic temple across the street with a ballroom for 200 people, a 600-seat theater and several meeting rooms. Within walking distance of the center is the 243-room Akron City Center Hotel, with 16,000 square feet of meeting space.
“We have launched a new marketing initiative for the convention center—‘JSK: The Right Fit’—which touts the advantages of using it for smaller, intimate events,” says James Mahon, vice president of marketing and brand management for the CVB.
The center has extended a number of booking incentives through 2014, including a 25 to 50 percent discount off rental charges based on the time of year. Additionally, a $3 room rebate is offered for events utilizing sleeping rooms.
According to Mahon, another new 2014 initiative is “Defy Convention,” encouraging community members to bring their next event “back home” and support Akron and Summit County’s growth.
Greater Akron continues to be positioned for sporting events, he adds, noting that Cleveland and Akron will host the 2014 International Gay Games this August. The event is expected to attract 12,000 participants.
The destination’s off-site attractions include Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens; Akron Art Museum; Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio’s only national park; Akron Civic Theater; and Hale Farm & Village.
Canton
Canton, 24 miles south of Akron, is home to 21 golf courses and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which recently completed a $27 million expansion and renovation, increasing its size to 124,000 square feet.
The city’s major meeting facilities include the multipurpose Canton Memorial Civic Center, with an auditorium that seats 5,000 and a room that seats 600. The Cultural Center for the Arts, staging ballet, symphony, opera and theater, and the Canton Museum of Art are nearby. South of the civic center is the 165-room McKinley Grand Hotel, with 10,000 square feet of meeting space.
Other meeting venues include the IACC-certified University Center at Kent State University, which can handle groups of 600; Gervasi Vineyards, which features a 7,000-square-foot event pavilion; and the William McKinley Presidential Library & National Monument, which has event space.
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Lake Erie Shores & Islands
Located on the shores of Lake Erie just off the Ohio turnpike are Lake Erie Shores & Islands, an area with more than 615,000 square feet of meeting space and 8,000 hotel rooms less than an hour’s drive from both Cleveland and Toledo airports.
“We deliver adrenaline-pumping adventures, soothing relaxation and everything in between,” says Amanda Smith Rasnick, group sales manager at Lake Erie Shores and Islands, the region’s Sandusky-based CVB. “We have the most plentiful sport fishing on all the Great Lakes and diverse island escapes just a short boat ride from the mainland. It is less than an hour’s drive from both Cleveland and Toledo airports, and is easily accessible via the Ohio Turnpike.”
The largest meeting facility is at the African-themed, 890-room Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio’s largest hotel. The property recently expanded its conference space to 215,000 square feet, accommodating more than 5,200 attendees.
Another major property, the 240-room Sawmill Creek in Huron, features golf, a marina, and 50,000 square feet of meeting space.
The area’s Cedar Point theme park will launch two new rides for the season upon opening in May: Pipe Scream, combining a roller coaster and a flat ride in one, and Lake Erie Eagles, a classic flying scooters ride. For the 2013 season it introduced the $30 million GateKeeper, its sixth roller coaster.
Toledo
Toledo, Ohio’s fourth-largest city in population, has three major adjacent meeting venues in its downtown core and more than 7,000 hotel rooms,
SeaGate Convention Centre, the primary venue, includes 75,000 square feet of exhibit space, divisible into three halls. The 400-room Park Inn Toledo is attached to it and close by is a 241-room Crowne Plaza.
Adjacent to the center is Fifth Third Field, home of the minor-league Toledo Mud Hens, and Huntington Center, home to the minor-league Toledo Walleye hockey team and featuring 17,000 square feet of function space.
“One of the things that makes Toledo stand out as a meetings and conventions destination is the water,” says Julie Bolfa, convention sales manager at Destination Toledo. “The downtown has a beautiful riverfront. Most people don’t typically think of Toledo as having a beach, but we do.”
Across the Maumee River from downtown is the waterfront Hollywood Casino-Toledo, which opened in 2012 with 2,000-plus slots, 60 table games, a range of dining choices and event space.
Also across the river, the Great Lakes Historical Society opened the $12 million National Museum of the Great Lakes on Front Street in April. The complex includes a park and the SS Col. James M. Schoonmaker Museum Ship, once the largest freighter on the Great Lakes and available for functions.
Two top Toledo meetings hotels have rebranded. Downtown’s Grand Plaza Hotel, with 18,000 square feet of meeting space, dropped its Best Western affiliation last fall, and the Hotel at The University of Toledo Medical Center, with 14,000 square feet of meeting space, became the Radisson Hotel at The University of Toledo in December.
Off-site venue options include Imagination Station science center, which has a Titanic exhibition on display through June 14, and the Toledo Museum of Art.
Bowling Green, 25 miles south of Toledo, features a historic downtown, a number of museums and a half-dozen hotels with meeting space. It is home to Bowling Green State University, where the student union can handle 1,000 theater style and 600 for banquets.
Tony Bartlett has been writing about the travel industry for more than 25 years.
