Florida’s convention centers and other large-scale venues keep meetings in mind with a variety of enhancements.
- The Orange County Convention Center launched the next phase of a five-year capital improvement plan with the renovation of West Halls E and F, as well as meeting rooms, set for completion by August 2015. Highlights include a 50,000-square-foot ballroom and four boardrooms.
- On-site printing, packing, shipping and parcel management are now available at the Tampa Convention Center, which has welcomed a UPS Store. The 600,000-square-foot center is set along the Riverwalk in the heart of downtown Tampa.
- With construction slated to commence in 2016, the Miami Beach Convention Center is on track toward a $500 million renovation to expand and enhance the current facilities, including a redesigned ballroom that will rank among the top five largest in the country. Plans also call for an 800-room headquarter hotel.
- With the goal of optimizing its function as a football stadium and event venue, Miami’s Sun Life Stadium is undergoing a $400 million overhaul that will add an open-air canopy, new seating, new suites, renovated concourses and concessions, club options for groups and four new high-def video boards.
“There will be some wonderful luxury event spaces for cocktail receptions that will have views of the field,” says Cara Cambria, manager of special events. “It’s going to look spectacular. I think by 2017, it’s going to be like a conveyor belt of events coming here.” - Set a block away from the Atlantic in Daytona Beach, the Ocean Center stepped up its culinary offerings with the recent hiring of Executive Chef John Schmitz, a 20-year veteran of the hospitality industry who now oversees Ovations, the center’s exclusive caterer.
- Groundbreaking on a 225-room Sheraton headquarter hotel is scheduled to take place in June, another milestone in the expansion of the Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers.
- The BG Ocala Civic Center, formerly the Ocala Entertainment Complex, is being redeveloped as a 40,000-square-foot convention center complex. At press time, completion was tentatively scheduled for the end of March.
