SAN JUAN --
Construction of the new Puerto Rico Convention Center is 78%
complete, and officials expect to welcome the first group in
January 2006.
The opening of
the $415 million, 580,000-square-foot facility -- the cornerstone
of the Puerto Rico Convention District, along with the Sheraton San
Juan Convention Center Hotel -- is scheduled for November, although
a specific date has not yet been set.
Officials
estimate that the district will attract groups of up to 4,500
conventioneers.
The Puerto Rico
Convention Bureau reported that group bookings for fiscal year
2004-2005, which ends June 30, have grown by 13%, and room nights
booked rose 9% over the same period in the last fiscal year,
according to Ana Maria Viscasillas, president and CEO.
The Bureau
conducted 114 site inspections with meeting planners and other
executives between July 1, 2004, and March 31, 2005, an 85% jump
compared with the same period last year.
For more
information, visit www.prconvention.com.
To contact
the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Gay Nagle Myers
at [email protected].