2007 was an exciting year for New York City, with The Plaza celebrating its 100th birthday and reopening after three years of refurbishment and art-deco Radio City Music Hall celebrating 75 years of entertainment. In 2007, New York City welcomed an estimated 44 million visitors, with hotel occupancy rates averaging 85 percent. To accommodate visitors, new hotels keep springing up all over the city's five boroughs. From July to December 2007, approximately 1,900 new hotel rooms became available. And the current inventory of 72,500 hotel rooms is expected to rise to 90,000 by the end of 2010.

The Plaza reopened in time for the holiday season with 282 guest rooms (before closing for renovations, the property had 805 guest rooms) and some of the priciest condos in Manhattan. Private residences at The Plaza achieved a record price of $6,500 per square foot with condos starting at $2.5 million. Its iconic venues, including the Palm Court, Grand Ballroom, Oak Room, and the Oak Bar, have all been restored to their former glory. The property will accept group bookings for 40 to 50 rooms, with group room rates starting at $695. When the property opened in 1907, the room rate was $2.50 for a room or $4 for a room with a bath. The Plaza, with 15,000 square feet of meeting space and seven meeting rooms, accommodates from 10 to 150 attendees. A Fairmont property, The Plaza follows all the green policies set by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.

In convention center news, the state of New York released the latest plans for a Javits Convention Center expansion on January 18. The new plan proposes an addition of 100,000 square feet (60,000 square feet of meeting rooms and 40,000 square feet of exhibit space), much smaller than the original plan, which was to double the size of the convention center and add a convention hotel. The state is also considering plans for a convention hotel.

To the south in Atlantic City, the building never stops. Three major meeting hotels, Borgata, Harrah's, and Trump Taj Mahal, are building new towers and adding 2,500 guest rooms to the city's inventory.

New York & New Jersey/Facilities Update

New York

• The Empire Hotel near Lincoln Center reopened this past summer. The hotel has 413 rooms and meeting space for 250 people.

• The Roosevelt Hotel recently added new beds and bedding to its 1,015 guest rooms and renovated its fitness center.

• Renaissance New York Times Square is finishing a top-to-bottom renovation project. The hotel's public areas are being redesigned, and a new street entrance is being built on Seventh Avenue.

• The New York Marriott East Side just renovated all of its 646 guest rooms and added a new 1,300-square-foot fitness center on the hotel's 35th floor. Event space at the hotel includes 19 meeting rooms, with the largest seating 400.

• Hyatt is opening its new luxury brand, Hyatt Andaz, in New York. A Hyatt Andaz will open later this year at 75 Wall St., in the former headquarters of JPMorgan Chase. The property will have 250 suites and 350 residential units. Another Hyatt Andaz will open across from the New York Public Library in late 2008 or early 2009.

• W New York Downtown will open late in the year. The mixed-use property is near the World Trade Center site and will include 217 guest rooms and 222 residential units.

• The VU Hotel, a 222-room boutique property, opens this spring. Located on the Westside of midtown Manhattan, the VU is the closest hotel to Pier 94 Convention Center and the Manhattan Cruise Ship Terminal. The hotel offers panoramic views of the Hudson River and Times Square and has 5,500 square feet of meeting space.

• Hotel Indigo New York, an InterContinental brand, opens late summer in Chelsea. The hotel will have 122 guest rooms; a rooftop garden; a street-level, glass-canopied outdoor sitting area and café; and a boardroom for small meetings.

• NYC's first aloft hotel is scheduled to open midyear in downtown Brooklyn on Duffield Street, along with a Sheraton. Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the parent company, is pairing the two properties, which together will have 500 guest rooms, restaurants, meeting rooms, swimming pool, spa, and open terrace.

• The 150-room Hilton Garden Inn on Staten Island offers one of the best deals in the city on room rates. The hotel and its sister property, the 107-room Hampton Inn (just across the parking lot) have a combined 2,008 square feet of event space. The properties are on a 415-acre wildlife preserve with easy access to Manhattan.

• Actor Robert De Niro is opening the Greenwich Hotel in TriBeCa. The property, located on North Moore and Greenwich streets, will have 88 rooms.

• The new Cooper Square Hotel opens this summer in the Bowery, an area of rapid gentrification. The 21-story, $100 million property will have 145 guest rooms ranging from 315 to 700 square feet, three bars, a restaurant, and a small park.

New Jersey

• Phase II of the Borgata Hotel expansion will add a 43-story tower to be named The Water Club at Borgata. The tower will feature 800 guest rooms and suites; 18,000 square feet of meeting space; retail shops; and a two-story, 36,000-square-foot spa with 15 treatment rooms, four swimming pools, and a fitness center. The project will cost $400 million.

• Harrah's Atlantic City is adding a 47-story, 964-room hotel tower that will make Harrah's the tallest hotel in Atlantic City and boost hotel capacity by 60 percent. The new tower will include 964 guest rooms, including 183 suites and 13 super-suites; a nightclub; retail stores; a 650-seat buffet; a 500-seat coffee shop; and a Red Door spa with 24 treatment rooms and indoor pool.

• Trump Taj Mahal is building a new 39-story tower that will include 716 standard guest rooms and 70 suites with ocean views. The cost will be $250 million and completion is expected this summer.

• Tropicana is refurbishing its guest rooms in the North and the South towers, as well as the North casino floor. It is adding 800 new slot machines and new décor on the South casino floor to match the Cuban-themed Quarter.

Ask the CVB

New Jersey

Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority
(609) 449-7135
www.meetinac.com
Total Hotel Tax: 13% plus a state occupancy fee of 1%, plus a tourism promotion fee of $2 per day for casino rooms or $1 per day for noncasino rooms.

New York

NYC & Company
(212) 484-1218
www.nycvisit.com
Total Hotel Tax: 13.375% plus $3.50 per room occupancy

Trip Tips

Anthony Napoli, president of Briggs Inc. DMC (www.briggsnyc.com), advises planners how to take the sting out of the Big Apple for programs:

• With properties running at 90 percent occupancy, look at the off-season months of January, February, July, and August. Flexibility with your dates is the best way to get a better hotel rate.

• All meetings don't have to be in hotels. A DMC can arrange a breakfast meeting within walking distance of your hotel for half the cost of an on-property breakfast.

• In Atlantic City, go where the locals go: Dine at Chef Vola. This restaurant has never published its phone number and is pretty much hidden from view — you need to know the right people to get a reservation. Convention services at the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority can give you the inside scoop.

• In Atlantic City, have a lobster or clam bake at Gardner's Basin (www.oceanlifecenter.com). And if it's not the season for dining outdoors, hold an indoor reception at the Atlantic City Aquarium Ocean Life Center, also located at this “park.”

Special Venues

• Ever think of Chinatown for unique venues and extra value? New York's Chinatown (www.explorechinatown.com), on the east side of lower Manhattan, is the largest in the U.S. Jing Fong Restaurant, 20 Elizabeth St., is a local favorite for dim sum during the day and Cantonese feasts in the evenings. The venue just completed a major renovation and can accommodate up to 794 guests.

• Grand Prix New York Racing, a new indoor event, teambuilding, and recreational racing facility, opened in December in Mount Kisco, N.Y., just outside Manhattan in Westchester County. The 120,000-square-foot venue includes two racetracks, nine event rooms accommodating 25 to 196 attendees, a VIP event room for 40, a banquet room accommodating 225, and two exhibition halls. The facility offers a variety of programs for teambuilding using championship-caliber Sodi karts that go up to 40 mph. All participants are outfitted with racing suits and helmets. www.gpny.com

• The Time Warner Center (www.theshopsatcolumbuscircle.com) at Columbus Circle is an event haven. The complex includes the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Jazz at Lincoln Center, designer shops, and some of the city's best restaurants. All of the venues have private rooms. In addition, broadcast camera location boxes called “plug and play” are located throughout the complex, giving clients the ability to host live webcasts, live TV shots, satellite media tours, video news releases, and more.

• Bruno Jamais Restaurant Club, the tony supper club owned by French restaurateur Bruno Jamais, regularly welcomes celebrities and dignitaries such as Kim Catrall; Chris Noth (Mr. Big); Billy Baldwin; Fergie, the Duchess of York; Joan Rivers; and former President Bill Clinton. Now, this upscale venue is available for private functions during the day. The restaurant club can serve 80 guest for a sit-down dinner or 200 for a buffet or cocktail reception. The downstairs wine cellar can host 20 guests. Dinner is served until 3 a.m., and there is live entertainment seven nights a week. On Sunday evenings, the restaurant is open for “Disco Sundays” and has a reduced-price menu.

• The Russian Tea Room on West 57th Street reopened in November 2006. This famous eatery, founded by Russian Imperial Ballet dancers in 1927, is known for serving 40 different vodkas and accepts group bookings ranging in size from 10 to 500.

• The new Times Center Auditorium in the new New York Times building on 8th Avenue seats 378. The venue is wired for live television and radio broadcast as well as wireless Internet feeds for meetings and distance-learning events. www.thetimescenter.com

• Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium in Times Square can host 850 guests and is available for exclusive hire. A private section of the “odditorium” is available for smaller events and accommodates 45 guests. www.ripleysnewyork.com