An $80 million renovation at the Beverly Hilton, at the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards in Beverly Hills, Calif., brings a newly sparkling and spacious lobby to the former Merv Griffin hotel (www.beverlyhilton.com). All 570 rooms have been restyled and refreshed with new furnishings, European linens, both wireless and Ethernet Internet connections, and a work desk and ergonomic chair. Guest rooms have 42-inch HDTVs, and the spa-like bathrooms with their own TV screens. All public spaces have free wireless access. The renovated ballroom and event space features Murano glass chandeliers, imported from Italy, and, of course, state-of-the-art AV production technology — this is, after all, home to the Golden Globe awards and many other Hollywood events. The more than 80,000 square feet of meeting and event space includes the self-contained Executive Meeting Center.

Construction began in April on a $350 million, 1,000-room hotel one block from the Phoenix Convention Center (www.ci.phoenix.az.us/CIVPLAZA/plazaidx.html). The publicly financed hotel is scheduled to open in fall of 2008; managed by Starwood, it will be the city's largest. The new Sheraton will have more than 80,000 square feet of meeting space. The convention center will open Phase I of a $600,000 expansion this summer, if plans go according to schedule. The new four-level West Building will have exhibit space, as well as a conference center built to IACC standards. The full expansion should be complete in 2009, tripling function space to 900,000 square feet.

Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, Del. (www.centerontheriverfront.com), has opened an event facility with 87,000 square feet of space for meetings, conventions, and corporate events. The $7 million makeover of the former arts center has created a hall of two enormous curving walls leading from an atrium lobby into Governors' Hall. That space adjoins the 22,000-square-foot Wilmington Hall, an all-black exhibit space that offers a dramatic backdrop for shows. Chase Center has 10 conference and meeting rooms, a 260-seat theater, a seminar room, and ballroom space that seats up to 1,000 people.