The 190-room Holiday Inn Select Atlanta Airport South is aiming to redefine the airport hotel with features designed for medium-sized meetings. Rooms are equipped with data ports and high-speed Internet access, plus two phone lines with caller ID. The hotel's 3,500 square feet of meeting space includes the Bass Learning Center, which can train up to 40 people at networked computer terminals. The Georgia International Convention Center is within walking distance, and on-demand shuttle buses take hotel guests to the airport and its MARTA rail station.

The Radisson St. Paul (Minn.), the city's largest convention hotel, will open its $10 million renovation in June 2000. All 475 guest rooms and public spaces are being remodeled. Meeting rooms will be upgraded to complement the decor of the Great River Ballroom, which was added in 1998 and overlooks the Mississippi River. Meeting space accommodates up to 1,800 people.

The newly expanded and renamed Kentucky International Convention Center (formerly the Commonwealth Convention Center) reopened earlier this year in Louisville. New space, including the 30,000-square-foot Cascade Ballroom, has brought the center's total space to nearly 300,000 square feet.

The Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center recently opened its 10,000-square-foot Spa & Fitness Center, completing the second phase of an $88 million renovation and expansion project. Also new at the resort are the redesigned Hawk's Landing Golf Course and the upscale Hawk's Landing Steakhouse & Grille. The final phase, to open this summer, will add 500 guest rooms (for a total of 2,000) and 14,000 square feet of meeting space (for a total of more than 200,000 square feet).

The Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center has broken ground on a 230,000-square-foot expansion and a 500-room headquarters hotel. When the $30 million expansion opens in September 2001, the expansion will bring the center's total available space to 600,000 square feet. The hotel, to open in December 2001, will be connected to the Center by skywalk and will feature 28,000 square feet of meeting space.

In late April, the Tampa Marriott Waterside opened, designated Marriott's 2,000th hotel. Paul Catoe, head of the Tampa Hillsborough CVA, called the new hotel a catalyst for downtown development projects, including Channelside, a major waterside shopping and entertainment center. The $105 million, 717-room Marriott has 50,000 square feet of meeting space and is adjacent to the Tampa Convention Center, which has 600,000 square feet of space. Unexpected in a convention hotel is the 6,000-square-foot spa and fitness center, which offers facials, massages, and salon services.

A 1,081-room convention headquarters hotel complex is under construction in St. Louis. The 916-room Renaissance St. Louis Hotel and a 165-suite Renaissance Suite Hotel will open in August 2002. The hotels will be owned by a partnership between Kimberly-Clark and Historic Restoration and will be managed by Marriott.

Coeur d'Alene (Idaho) Resort is rebuilding its Park Tower and renovating the tower's 109 rooms. Set to open this spring, the new Park Tower will offer rooms with wider panoramic views of Lake Coeur d'Alene and new soft goods. The resort's 6,309-yard Course No. 1 was designed by Scott Miller. The 328-room property offers 23,000 square feet of meeting space.