WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The long-delayed, $72 million Palm Beach
County Convention Center is slated to break ground in downtown West
Palm Beach in January, according to Warren McLaughlin, president of
the Palm Beach County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Differences between government and tourist industry
representatives over the center's size, site selection, and how to
fund its construction and operation have delayed the project over
the past decade.
When the center opens in May 2003, the county will be able to
handle large conventions and trade shows requiring 100,000 square
feet of exhibit space, McLaughlin said.
He said that some 7,000 convention groups based all over the
U.S. require that kind of space.
The facility, encompassing a 21-acre site, will offer a total of
300,000 square feet of space, including the 100,000-square-foot
exhibit hall, a 25,000- square-foot ballroom and at least another
23,000 square feet of breakout space, McLaughlin said.
A 400- to 450-room anchor hotel to adjoin the center is planned
as well. The property would open at the same time the convention
center opens, he said. Negotiations with hotel chains interested in
owning or operating the property are in progress, he said,
including Starwood, parent of Westin and Sheraton.
Citywide conventions will be no problem because 3,000 hotel
rooms are within a three-mile drive of the center, McLaughlin
said.
The convention bureau will handle the center's sales, marketing
and operations, giving it the ability to deliver on promises made
by the sales staff, he said.
Benny Baez, bureau vice president, is the center's liaison. A
sales team will be assembled by the fall, McLaughlin said.
Currently the county's largest meeting site is about a 30-minute
drive south of West Palm Beach at the Boca Raton (Fla.) Resort
& Club.
The luxury, oceanfront property offers a total of 142,000 square
feet of function space, some of it spread over its two mainland
hotel structures and the Beach Club across the Intracoastal
Waterway.
The resort's 80,000-square-foot Mizner Center, included in the
total space, offers the most contiguous space.
The Breakers in Palm Beach has about 45,000 square feet of
meeting space. The convention center's site is convenient to
Interstate 95 and the West Palm Beach Airport.
It is across from the Kravis Center for Performing Arts and
adjacent to CityPlace, a 77-acre, $600 million, mixed-use urban
development project with shopping, dining, entertainment and
residential units. CityPlace is scheduled to open in October.
Palm Beach County Convention Bureau
Phone: (800) 833-5733