What's New

The most welcome meeting news along the mid-Atlantic coast was announced by Hilton Hotels in September: Construction is finally under way on a long-awaited convention center hotel, the Hilton Baltimore, designed to be a 20-story edifice in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Attached by skybridge to the Baltimore Convention Center and adjacent to Camden Yards, the hotel's anticipated opening date is summer 2008. Organizations and event planners, however, aren't waiting to see it before they book. The Institute for Supply Management, based in Tempe, Ariz., plans to hold its annual convention at the BCC in May 2008, a booking only possible because the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association could offer a big block of rooms for the four-day meeting. The Associated Professional Sleep Societies has also booked for 2008 and will bring 4,000 attendees, and the Academy of General Dentistry will be coming with 3,000 attendees in 2009. The 757-room hotel will have a 25,000-square-foot ballroom, as well as 20,000 square feet of function space, a fitness center, a business center, and retail space.

Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority officials in mid-November were struggling to hold the expansion cost of the center under its $700 million budget in light of higher real estate costs in Center City. Architectural plans that call for an additional 376,000 square feet of convention space and a grand new entrance along North Broad were estimated as high as $785 million this summer. The city redevelopment authority has made offers for all of the properties wanted for the project, and hopes to have the land acquired by year end. No construction start has been scheduled.

Something new in Washington, the DC Circulator will bring a smile to the faces of planners trying to manage logistics for a meeting in the District. It launched in July to provide quick, direct access to some of the most popular points in the city. From 8 a.m. until 9 p.m., 365 days a year, 29 buses painted red, white, black, and yellow link downtown with Georgetown, the convention center, hotels, restaurants, the Kennedy Center, and the Southwest Waterfront (at the National Mall). The cost of a ticket is $1.

Last October, plans for a headquarters hotel at the new Washington Convention Center gained about 200 rooms. Marriott will manage the property.

Fueled by an 87 percent occupancy rate for 2005 and a stepped-up economy, by the end of 2007 New York City will add nearly 5,000 new hotel rooms in new and expanded properties to its current inventory of 70,723.

One of those properties is a real New York icon: The Plaza Hotel at Fifth Avenue and Central Park is being restored and divided into hotel rooms and private apartments. The property, now a Fairmont hotel, was closed last year for a $350 million renovation. It will open with 182 private residences and 282 hotel rooms, magnificently restored public spaces, shops, and restaurants. The Plaza reopens in 2007, just in time to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

The Virginia Beach Convention Center has opened with a 56,500-square-foot exhibit hall and 40,000 square feet of meeting and function space. When the second phase of the project is completed in 2007, the convention center's square footage will grow to 516,522.

Also in Virginia, the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center opened last year on the school's campus at Blacksburg. This 147-room hotel and adjoining meeting facility is owned by Virginia Tech and managed by Hilton Hotels. High-speed wired and wireless network access is available in the inn and in the 23,705 square feet of the conference center.

In Baltimore, the newest attraction on the Inner Harbor is a Comics Museum, with all the memorabilia and silliness of the past 50 years of laughable characters and heroic endeavors. Group tours are already coming out grinning.

• Facility Updates

  The District

  Kimpton opened its seventh District hotel this summer, the 335-room Hotel Palomar Washington D.C. After a $32 million renovation, the Dupont Circle hotel offers 10,500 square feet of meeting space.

• Maryland

  Wyndham City Center Hotel at M Street and New Hampshire Avenue will become the Renaissance M Street in January after an $18.5 million renovation. The hotel will have 355 rooms, and will begin a refurbishment of all guest rooms and public areas, as well as an upgrade of its meeting space, upon the rebranding.

• New Jersey

  The Hyatt Dulles completed a $4.2 million renovation in 2005. The hotel offers 316 executive suites and 7,300 square feet of function space.

• New York

  The InterContinental Harbor Court Baltimore was converted from the five-star Harbor Court Hotel and opened this spring overlooking the Inner Harbor. The hotel is part of a mixed-use property that includes an eight-story tower with 195 guest rooms. The hotel has 8,000 square feet of function space.

• Pennsylvania

  Starwood Hotels & Resorts will soon have two new airport hotels — a Sheraton and an adjacent Westin less than three miles from Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The 201-room Four Points by Sheraton BWI opened this fall with more than 4,600 square feet of meeting space in eight rooms. The 260-room BWI Westin is scheduled to open in spring 2007 with nearly 7,300 square feet of meeting space.

• Virginia

  Work started in September on a $75 million overhaul of the New Carrollton Hotel just inside the Capital Beltway. It will become a Sheraton Four Points surrounded by new retail space, restaurants, and office condominiums expected to be finished by spring.

• West Virginia

  Turf Valley Resort and Conference Center in Ellicott City is converting 117 guest rooms to 42 junior suites, four king suites, and a concierge lounge, thus reducing the guest room count to 171 rooms and suites. There is 40,000 square feet of meeting space.

• Ask the CVB

  Delaware

  Atlantic City's Borgata Resort has completed a $200 million expansion, adding casino space, two nightclubs, retail space, and restaurants. A second phase of expansion will consist of an 830,000-square-foot tower, adding 800 guest rooms and suites, indoor and outdoor pools, a spa and fitness center, meeting space, and shops. The $347 million tower should be completed in late 2007.

• District of Columbia

  Donald Trump's casino company will spend $110 million upgrading its three Atlantic City gambling hotels. It will build an indoor promenade at Trump Taj Mahal, a new restaurant at Trump Plaza, and will renovate meeting and convention space and add a new restaurant at Trump Marina. The company spent $32 million in 2005 on room renovations and other improvements at the three properties. In June, construction began on an 800-room hotel tower at Trump Taj Mahal.