Dec. 07–It’s taken nearly a decade of planning, but work is finally beginning on the convention center hotel in West Palm Beach.
And tourism interests are banking on the new 400-room Hilton West Palm Beach at the Palm Beach County Convention Center to bring more tourists and their dollars to town when it opens in fall 2015.
Friday, officials from the city, county and project developer Related Cos. raised shovels and tossed dirt to mark the kick-off of construction of the more than $100 million project.
The Hilton West Palm Beach is expected to add more than 1,500 building-related and hospitality jobs, and generate $1 billion in economic activity over 10 years, a county official said during the groundbreaking program.
“It’s a great day for Palm Beach County. In fact, it’s a game-changing day, because it’s not every day we can celebrate a project that pays such big dividends in a very short time,” said Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of Discover Palm Beach County, the destination’s marketing agency. “This hotel will bring 36,000 new customers spending about $30 million a year and that’s a lot of meals, shopping and museum tickets. It’s a real shot in the arm for this community.”
With the new hotel as an added amenity, tourism officials can begin spreading the word that “West Palm Beach boasts the only convention center with a connected headquarter hotel in all of South Florida, and that’s a competitive advantage,” Pesquera noted.
Hotel industry specialists say the convention center hotel will definitely be an asset, but attracting a wider audience will also be crucial to ensuring year-round success.
“It is a positive when going after conventions, but convention center hotels cannot live on convention business only,” Scott Brush, a South Florida-based lodging industry consultant said.
“They have to go after small meetings and bring in some leisure business,” Brush said.
In addition to two ballrooms, eight conference rooms and other event space, the Hilton hotel being built adjacent to the convention center at 650 Okeechobee Blvd. will also feature a 225-seat restaurant, bar, fitness center and landscaped pool area with cabanas.
“It makes good business sense to put in resort-like amenities,” Brush noted.
County officials said the push for the hotel began in 2004 shortly after the convention center opened and called it the “missing piece” of the master plan for CityPlace, West Palm Beach’s popular downtown retail, restaurant and entertainment venue.
“This is an important investment in the health and future of Palm Beach County’s economy,” said Mayor Priscilla Taylor. “A world-class hotel at the Palm Beach County Convention Center will give us the edge we need to attract a full calendar of meetings, conventions and events of all types, boosting our already healthy travel and tourism industry.”
In 2010, county commissioners selected Related Cos., which also developed CityPlace, to build the hotel. Related is headed by Miami Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross.
“It’s been a long time in the coming,” Ross said Friday of the hotel project that’s had some ‘false starts’ along the way. “To be here today and persevere, I guess, it pays to stick to something you believe in.”
asatchell@tribune.com, 954-356-4209 or Twitter@TheSatchreport.
