Projects Underway: More Exhibit Space at Hotels

By Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 4/10/2006

There's a bumper crop of new exhibit space in the pipeline, according to Tradeshow Week research, and a great deal of it is in hotels. More than a dozen hotel exhibit hall construction projects are underway around the country, from Florida to California and Mississippi to Illinois.

All of the action regarding new exhibition space isn't in the mega-venues either. In fact, TSW research also reveals that venues with more than 500,000 sq. ft. of space only account for 8 percent of all facilities. Hotel exhibit space typically fills the need for smaller meetings and abundant meeting space; and the convenience of having a tradeshow right in the attendees' hotel cannot be overstated.

But not all hotel exhibit halls are small, either.

"At one point, the major advantage of hotel exhibit halls was the convenience of having hotel rooms and the exhibit hall all under one roof, plus the services that a hotel provides," said Jim Hess, chairman of the Intl. Assn. of Assembly Managers' External Affairs Committee and executive director of the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison, Wis. "However, the combination of the recent development of specialized convention centers, which in most cases are attached to a hotel, and the first-class services they provide, are making these types of exhibit halls equally desirable."

For instance, Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, with 934,731 sq. ft. of exhibit space, dwarfs many convention centers. And the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, Fla., and Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, offer 400,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space each.

So, which hotels have added, or are currently adding, to the current inventory of exhibit space?

Hotel exhibit hall construction and/or expansions completed in the last year, with their exhibit space:

• Louisville Marriott Downtown, with 27,000 sq. ft., opened in March 2005.
• Wynn Las Vegas, with 75,586 sq. ft., opened in April 2005.
• Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, Lake Buena Vista, Fla., expanded from 95,000 sq. ft. to 181,000 sq. ft. in April 2005.
• Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, expanded from 107,750 sq. ft. to 167,500 sq. ft. in July 2005.
• Broadmoor Hall, Colorado Springs, Colo., with 60,000 sq. ft., opened in October 2005.
• Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center, with 30,000 sq. ft., opened in December 2005.
• South Coast Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, with 80,000 sq. ft., opened in February 2006.

New exhibit halls, in various stages of construction, with their exhibit space:

• Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, Schaumburg, Ill., with 100,000 sq. ft. will open in July.
• Orlando's Rosen Shingle Creek with 195,000 sq. ft. will open in September.
• Gaylord Natl. Resort & Convention Center, Oxon Hill, Md., with 180,000 sq. ft., will open in early 2008.
• Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, with 84,000 sq. ft., will open in late 2008.
• Project CityCenter, Las Vegas, the size of which is yet to be determined, is scheduled for completion by late 2009.
• Las Vegas ExpoCenter at Echelon Place, with 650,000 sq. ft., is scheduled for completion in 2010.
• Myriad Botanical Resort, Tunica, Miss., with an expected 375,000 sq. ft., is currently in the design stage and does not yet have a definite completion date.

Hotel exhibit space expansions in progress:

• Ritz Carlton Grande Lakes, Orlando, will go from 33,500 sq. ft. to 47,000 sq. ft. by October 2006.
• Town & Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, will expand from 121,500 sq. ft. to 162,500 sq. ft. by December 2006.
• Orlando World Center Marriott, is expanding from 214,000 sq. ft. to 400,000 sq. ft. by April 2007.
• The Peppermill Hotel Casino in Reno, Nev., is expanding from 22,784 sq. ft. to 87,784 sq. ft. by September 2007.
• The Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., will go from 55,000 sq. ft. to 170,000 sq. ft. by summer 2008.
• The Peabody Orlando, is expanding from 57,000 sq. ft. to 257,000 sq. ft. by mid-2008.
• The Anaheim Marriott will expand from 54,000 sq. ft. to 79,000 sq. ft. The completion date is undetermined.