What's New

Meeting planners love the new convention center but are adamant that the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center must have an attached hotel. And so it will. The Westin Boston Waterfront, a 790-room luxury hotel, is scheduled to open June 21, connected by enclosed walkway to the convention center.

Boston businesses know when to get in on a good thing, and other hotels, restaurants, shops, and cultural attractions are rising near the BCEC. The new Institute of Contemporary Art will open this September on Northern Avenue, and the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel will open nearby during fall 2007.

In western Massachusetts, the new MassMutual Center opened in late 2005 to replace the old Springfield Civic Center. It provides not only glittering and cavernous new meeting space, but a renovated arena with seating for nearly 7,000 people.

News from Massachusetts' top island destinations includes the new Nantucket Whaling Museum, which opened after nearly two years of preparation, and a new high-speed ferry that cuts travel time in half from Hyannis on Cape Cod to Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard.

In Providence, R.I., more hotels, both small luxury boutiques and larger corporate edifices, are coming online, and Providence is looking to its edges and beyond for projects that will energize the whole area. Rhode Island's provision to allow gaming in video and slots parlors is easing the state hospitality industry's pain at seeing dollars flow over the line to the two big casinos in Connecticut, Foxwood's Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun Resort.

However those gaming properties continue to be a major draw for both groups and leisure travelers. Foxwood's Resort Casino is at work on a $700 million project.

At Mohegan Sun, the Destination Services department has begun offering services and staff to noncompeting New England meetings and destinations through a new DMC called New England Hospitality. David Berwick, CMP, CMM, director of destination services at Mohegan Sun, leads NEH.

Meanwhile, the new Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford is sparking a renaissance in that city, led by the new $77 million Hartford Marriott Downtown next to the convention center.

Facilities Update

Connecticut

• MGM Mirage Inc. is opening a hotel/casino alongside Foxwoods Resort Casino, in partnership with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which owns the Connecticut property. The agreement is part of a $700 million project under way at Foxwoods. The new hotel/casino will be called the MGM Grand and is scheduled to open in 2008.

• The 392-room Hilton Hartford reopened in March 2005 after a $33 million total upgrade. The property offers 15,000 square feet of meeting space.

• Dolce Heritage Conference Resort in Southbury has recently renovated all 163 of its guest rooms.

Maine

• Sebasco Harbor Resort is constructing two new buildings of nine suites each that will open this summer. The Harbor Village Suites project will bring the number of guest rooms to 132.

Massachusetts

• Hotel 140 recently opened in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood with 40 guest rooms and approximately 2,000 square feet of function space. It is part of a massive $30 million overhaul of Boston's historic YWCA building, which also includes residential, cultural, and office space.

• The Hyatt Regency Boston has been recognized by the EPA and the Green Hotels Association for a recent $10.5 million renovation that implemented several resource-saving initiatives. The 22-story hotel has 20,000 square feet of meeting space.

• The Four Seasons Hotel Boston has 13 new suites in the latest phase of its multimillion-dollar renovation. All 259 guest rooms have been renovated.

• The $204 million Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel will open June 21 attached to the new Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. It will have 793 guest rooms and 32,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 15,000-square-foot ballroom and 14 meeting breakout rooms.

• The 471-room Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel will open in fall 2007 under Marriott International management with more than 20,700 square feet of meeting space.

• The $310 million, 424-room Intercontinental Boston, on the waterfront, will open this fall.

• Expect the Charles Street Jail Hotel to unlock its doors in spring 2007. Adjacent to Massachusetts General Hospital in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, the 1851 granite jail is being turned into a $100 million, 308-room hotel with meeting rooms, restaurants, and a health club.

• A 164-room Courtyard by Marriott South Bay opened in South Boston in May 2005.

• On Cape Cod, ClubCorp, which manages Pinehurst Resort and The Homestead, has taken over management of the 335-room Ocean Edge Resort and will spend $20 million upgrading the property. Plans include improvements to meeting space, expansion of the spa, and a major redesign of the existing 18-hole golf course.

• The 208-room Chatham Bars Inn on the Cape, with work finished on its waterfront meetings center, has started on a 15,000-square-foot spa complex, which they hope to have open by this summer.

New Hampshire

• The Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa in Whitefield was recently purchased by Great American Life Insurance Co. The deal included more than 1,400 acres, which are being considered for expansion of the golf course to 18 holes, a tennis facility, or an equestrian center. The historic 145-room resort has a conference center of 20,000 square feet.

Rhode Island

• The 80-room Hotel Providence opened early in 2005. Its popular 150-seat restaurant, L'Epicureo, moved to the hotel from Federal Hill.

• Newport Grand, a slots and video casino 55 miles northeast of Newport, plans to build a 90-room hotel with function rooms and space for 800 additional video slot machines — a $20 million project.

• The 374-room Providence Westin is adding a second tower, which will give the convention center's host hotel another 200 rooms by year's end.

• A rehabilitation of the 1920s Masonic Temple will create the 274-room Renaissance Providence by late summer. The hotel will have a 10,000-square-foot ballroom, meeting space, and a restaurant.

• The ultramodern Dolce Villa, a lemon-yellow, 14-suite property on Federal Hill in Providence, has recently opened.

Ask the CVB

Connecticut

Greater Hartford Convention & Visitors Bureau
(860) 728-6789, (800) 446-7811
www.enjoyhartford.com
Total Hotel Tax: 12%

The Northwest CT CVB
(860) 567-4506; www.litchfieldhills.com
Total Hotel Tax: Varies by town

Maine

CVB Greater Portland
(207) 772-4994; www.visitportland.com
Total Hotel Tax: 12%

Massachusetts

Greater Boston CVB
888-SEE BOSTON; www.bostonusa.com
Total Hotel Tax: 12.4%

Greater Springfield CVB
(413) 787-1548; (800) 723-1548
www.valleyvisitor.com
Total Hotel Tax: 12.45%

New Hampshire

Manchester Area CVB
(603) 666-6600
www.manchestercvb.com
Total Hotel Tax: 8%

Rhode Island

Newport CVB
(401) 849-8048, (800) 326-6030
www.gonewport.com
Total Hotel Tax: 13%

Providence/Warwick CVB
(401) 274-1636, ext. 237
www.goprovidence.com
Total Hotel Tax: 12%

Vermont

Vermont Convention Bureau
(802) 863-3489, (877) 686-5253
www.VermontMeetings.org
Total Hotel Tax: 9%

Phantom Planner

• New England — based members of the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives have organized a New England chapter for their organization. Its first meeting was planned for early June in Gloucester, Mass. For more information, contact Scott Bickford, Air Charter Services, the group's chapter-in-formation chair, at sbickford@airplanning.com.

• Some of the best museums in Boston can be visited for free or at reduced rates. The Museum of Fine Arts, for example, has a policy of pay-what-you-wish on Wednesdays after 4 p.m.; The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is free if your first name is Isabella (and how likely is that?); the Fogg Museum is free on Saturdays until noon. Find other museum freebies at www.TheInsider.com/Boston/Save/FreeMus.htm.

• Meeting in the city with limited time for side trips to the White Mountains or a shopping spree at L.L. Bean? Jets International, based in Quincy, Mass., is a private air-charter service with an unusual twist. Groups decide where they want to go and how much they want to spend. Jets International then posts the request online to hundreds of private jet operators for a guaranteed low price.

Special Venues

• Two of Newport's storied ocean-front mansions, Castle Hill Inn & Resort (www.CastleHillInn.com; 888/ 466-1355) and Ocean Cliff (www.newportexperience.com; 401/ 841-8868) welcome groups to elegant meeting and event spaces.

• At the rear of Providence's recently opened boutique hotel Dolce Villa is Villa Toscana, a separate building with private courtyards, balconies, and a two-floor suite that includes a living room with a fireplace and a commercial kitchen/dining room, with an open-floor plan, large enough for parties of up to 50. (401) 383-7031; www.mediterraneocaffe.com/Enhtml/projo_Dolce_Villa.htm

• Hartford, Conn.'s, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the country's oldest public art museum, offers several venues: In Morgan Great Hall, the balcony can accommodate a small musical ensemble to entertain up to 120 dinner guests. The Museum Theater is suitable for receptions in the 250-person range. (860) 278-2670, ext. 3038; www.wadsworthatheneum.org

• Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art opens in September on Northern Avenue near the World Trade Center and BCEC. Its lobby will accommodate receptions for up to 400 people. Its glass-walled galleries and 325-seat theater will also be available to groups. www.icaboston.com

• In New Hampshire, board the M/S Mount Washington at Weirs Beach and cruise Lake Winnepesaukee. Groups can plan to have breakfast and lunch aboard; or cocktails at sunset, a banquet, and entertainment. The group can reserve a room for up to 200 people or the entire ship. (603) 366-5531, (888) 843-6686); www.cruisenh.com