These are thriving times for the San Francisco Bay Area, bringing new challenges as well as opportunities for meetings.
A healthy local economy, fueled largely by the burgeoning tech sector, means more flexibility is required for desirable space and rates. On the positive side, planners will find an expanding array of exciting off-site venues, dining options, meeting spaces and hotels all around the bay.
San Francisco
With interest in meeting and convention space always high in San Francisco, the city is racing to meet demand with a fourth expansion of the Moscone Convention Center. Ground broke in December on the expansion, set for completion in 2018, and includes110,000 square feet of exhibition space and 43,000 square feet of meeting areas.
“It will give us a lot more needed flexibility, resulting in 515,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space when added to what we already have,” says Lysa Lewin, vice president-Moscone expansion sales and special events, for San Francisco Travel. “It will also allow us to do more simultaneous events.”
Another new addition to the South of Market convention center area will come with next year’s reopening of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which has been closed while undergoing a $610 million expansion and transformation. The stunning new building will feature multilevel gallery space, housing such additions as the Center for Photography and the Fisher Collection of Contemporary Art, as well as terraces, sculpture gardens and other spaces available for events.
While no major hotel development is on the horizon, two of the city’s convention hotels are sporting new brands. The former Westin Market Street Hotel, recently purchased by LaSalle Hotel Properties, is now the Park Central Hotel. The Parc 55 Hotel, formerly a Wyndham property, is now part of Hilton Hotels.
In the Fisherman’s Wharf area, a former Radisson property is being made over into the 361-room Hotel Zephyr, which will feature lounging areas with classic games and fire pits upon its expected completion before June. Nearby, the former Hilton Fisherman’s Wharf is now under independent management and has been renamed the Pier 2620 Hotel Fisherman’s Wharf.
Hotel space is tight in San Francisco, partly because of the increasing number of tech companies, including Twitter, setting up headquarters in the city, according to Lewin.
“As more companies come in, more business travelers come in, so that limits availability for groups,” she says. “We’re advising planners to be flexible and, if possible, to choose dates according to when citywide convention groups are moving in or out of the convention center.”
Meanwhile, the city’s Presidio has unveiled several unique new venues for groups, from restaurants to museums. (See the San Francisco Bay Area section of MeetingsFocus.com this month for a sidebar on the Presidio.)
East Bay
Just across the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the neighboring cities of Oakland and Berkeley are destinations known for innovative cuisine and unique venues. Both cities offer convenient connections on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, which recently opened a stop at Oakland International Airport.
According to Brandi Hardy, senior sales manager for Visit Oakland, the city is feeling the effects of the Bay Area economic boom.
“Demand is high, with plenty of medical and tech groups coming in who see us as a great alternative to San Francisco,” she says. “Our culinary scene is exploding—we’ve had 75 new restaurants opening in the past year. You can literally eat your way through the city.”
Offering both culinary and entertainment options is Plank, a multifaceted venue with waterfront views and space for up to 1,200 people that opened in Oakland’s Jack London Square last fall. Along with bowling, interactive games, bocce and billiards, the complex features a restaurant, outdoor bar and beer garden serving fusion cuisine and over 50 handcrafted beers.
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Also new is Visit Berkeley’s Berkeley Brew Trail guide, available online as well as in print, which details the city’s burgeoning microbrew scene. The Brew Trail includes such group-friendly venues as the Takara Sake Brewery, the largest sake brewery in the U.S., and Pyramid Alehouse, a frequent scene of catered events for up to 200 people.
A new venue option will be unveiled next year near the UC campus with the completion of a new home for the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Designed by Diller, Scofido + Renfro, the architects behind New York City’s High Line elevated park, the museum will anchor the city’s Downtown Arts District and feature over 400 film programs and 20 art exhibitions per year.
Straddling the Oakland-Berkeley border, the grande dame of the region is the Claremont Hotel & Spa, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The 279-room hotel is undergoing a property-wide renovation and will be reflagged as a Fairmont upon completion at the end of the year.
East of Oakland, the Tri-Valley encompasses the quaint towns of Pleasanton, Livermore and Danville, as well as a burgeoning wine region with over 60 wineries, many with function space that includes event centers and scenic outdoor areas surrounded by vineyards.
“The wineries are a huge draw for meetings here,” says Barbara Steinfeld, president of the Tri-Valley CVB. “We’re just 30 miles east of San Francisco and very centrally located, so we’re convenient for groups coming in from all over Northern California.”
The region is also benefiting from the Bay Area tech boom, with numerous start-ups and other companies setting up shop in the area, according to Steinfeld. Because meeting space demand is heavy during the week, local hotels offer especially good rates to groups who are willing to consider weekend dates, she says.
Major meeting hotels in the area have been investing heavily in renovations, including the Hilton Garden Inn in Livermore, the Sheraton Pleasanton and the Hyatt House Pleasanton. In addition, the Doubletree by Hilton Pleasanton at the Club reopened last summer under the Doubletree flag after completing a redo of all 292 guest rooms and 10,000 square feet of meeting space.
Also undergoing a major upgrade is the Tri-Valley’s largest complex of event space, the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.
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“The Fairgrounds are really raising the bar to make their meeting space a great option—for groups large and small,” Steinfeld says. “There’s a beautiful new boardroom already completed, while the larger halls are being renovated in different stages.”
San Mateo County
With a prime location in between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, San Mateo County is two worlds in one. Locally known as the Peninsula, the county offers urban hubs and San Francisco International Airport on one side and a laid-back coastline dotted with quaint towns, farmlands and resort properties such as The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay and Beach House Half Moon Bay on the other.
Corporate meeting business, fed by the tech, biotech and healthcare sectors, is strong, especially during midweek, according to Anne LeClair, president of the San Mateo County/Silicon Valley CVB.
“Planners will find the best rates and availability on the bayside on weekends, while the reverse is true of the coastal side,” she says.
Many of the region’s group-friendly hotels are clustered near San Francisco International Airport, including Hyatt, Marriott, Westin and Doubletree properties. A new airport hotel of 300 to 400 rooms is expected to be announced soon, with the possibility of completion by late 2017, according to Le Clair.
“Having the airport hotels is a real asset, and ours go beyond what you might typically expect,” she says. “Many have water views and resort amenities.”
A local hot spot for hotel development is Palo Alto, home to Stanford University, where properties under construction include The Clement Palo Alto, set to open this month with 23 suites, a 14-seat boardroom and a rooftop pool, and the 54-room Nest Palo Alto, a limited-service hotel set to open in September. A Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites opened in the city earlier this year.
North Bay
Just across the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin County is a magnet for small to mid-size meetings that can enjoy such pleasures as organic farm tours, quaint towns and acres of spectacular nature preserves and protected coastlands, says Christine Bohlke, sales and marketing director for the Marin CVB.
“We can handle meetings for up to 350, but typically meetings are in the 100 to 150 range, along with board meetings and executive retreats,” she says. “Over 80 percent of Marin is protected space, so we’re great for outdoor recreation and teambuilding. Plus, there is tremendous interest in visiting farms to learn about artisanal cheese-making and our other great agricultural products.”
Among the area’s newest meeting venues is the Clubhouse at Peacock Gap in San Rafael, which offers several meeting and banquet spaces with golf course views, including a boardroom with a stone fireplace. The entire facility can accommodate groups of up to 1,200.
Group-friendly hotels in the region include the Embassy Suites San Rafael and the Four Points by Sheraton San Rafael, which is wrapping up a $4 million property-wide renovation. In Corte Madera, plans were recently announced for the conversion of the Best Western Corte Madera into a Residence Inn and Spring Hill Suites, a dual property that will include meeting space.
In Sausalito, the Casa Madrona Hotel & Spa recently unveiled The Mansion, a Victorian-era residence with 11 guest rooms and two meeting spaces with terraces offering sweeping Bay views: the 5,000-square-foot Alexandrite Suite and the 1,700-square-foot Junto meeting room. Another luxury option in Sausalito is Cavallo Point, a waterfront property at Fort Baker with spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco skyline. Converted from 19th century military officers’ quarters, the property offers 140 historic and contemporary guest rooms, a spa, gourmet dining and 14,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor function space.
MARIA LENHART is a longtime Bay Area resident who enjoys keeping up with what’s new.
