The four-year, $415 million transformation of an old navy base into a spectacular convention center ushers in a new era for meetings and conventions in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “We are now a strong contender for the $122 billion meetings and convention industry business,” stated Puerto Rico Governor Anibal Acevedo-Vila, who inaugurated the facility at the grand opening celebration, November 17 and 18.

A fireworks display marked the occasion as the more than 1,000 inauguration guests watched the show under the distinctive wave-shaped glass roof that covers the center’s porte cochere.

The new Puerto Rico Convention Center—with 580,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space—is the largest meeting facility in Latin America and the Caribbean. “It will make tourism one of the pillars of Puerto Rico’s economic development,” said Jorge Silva Puras, secretary of the Department of Economic Tourism and Commerce, who aspires to attract 5 percent of the $122 billion meetings industry business to Puerto Rico. “That’s more than $5 billion in economic development we didn’t have the capability to pursue,” he stated.

Through 2012, more than 200 groups have booked the center, said Ana Maria Viscasillas, president and chief executive officer of the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau. The first major show at the center is the Caribbean Hotel Association, which meets January 15 to 17, 2006. The largest show on the books is the National Guard Association of the U.S., which brings a 5,000-person delegation to town in 2007.

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Currently, 60 percent of the tourism business in Puerto Rico comes from business travelers, with 35 percent of that total coming from meetings and conventions, states Viscasillas. The market mix is 30 percent association, 40 percent corporate, and 30 percent SMERF (social, military, education, religious, fraternal). With offices of more than 50 leading pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical-device manufacturers on the island, Puerto Rico is a hotbed for medical meetings. With the new center, the bureau will continue to leverage the medical economy to bring more medical meetings to Puerto Rico as well as to go after the larger association meetings, stated Viscasillas.

The center is expected to bring $300 million to the local economy annually. With a 152,700-square-foot exhibit hall, 39,500-square-foot grand ballroom, 36,400 square feet of meeting space, and 28 breakout rooms, the center can accommodate a delegation of about 10,000, but groups of that size are not yet on the books, Viscasillas stated. “We’re looking at groups of 1,500 to 2,000 right now,” she said. “We need more infrastructure to accommodate the larger groups.”

With 21 new hotels and 5,000 rooms in the pipeline through 2008, infrastructure is on the way. Groundbreaking for the 500-room, $175 million Sheraton headquarters hotel took place in December with construction scheduled for completion in 2008. The 113-acre former navy base turned convention center district will also include retail shops, residential units, office space, restaurants, and movie theaters.

The two-day celebration included a reception at the governor’s mansion, La Fortaleza, located in Old San Juan, and a white tie gala in the center’s grand ballroom.