Puerto Rico CC Chooses Anchor Hotel

Puerto Rico officials have selected Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide to operate a flagship anchor hotel for the new Puerto Rico Convention Center, scheduled to open in late 2005 with 152,700 square feet of exhibit space. Construction on the $175-million, 500-room Sheraton hotel is set to start early next year, with a projected opening in 2007.

The hotel will include a casino and entertainment complex with music hall, two ballrooms, banquet and meeting rooms, spa, restaurants and shops.

Ana Maria Viscasillas, acting executive director of the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau, marketing and sales agent for the new convention center, said the hotel would enable Puerto Rico to host even larger conventions and tradeshows.

Both hotel and convention center are in the central Puerto Rico Convention Center District, the largest waterfront development in the island's history, created to help Puerto Rico become a leading destination in the North American, European, Latin American and Caribbean convention markets. The 113-acre mixed-use development will also include office and residential units, a cinema complex, promenade with parks, gardens and lagoons, restaurants and stores.

It will cost $415 million in public funds to prepare the land and build the convention center, according to the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority. Several groups have already booked meetings into the convention center for 2006 and 2007.