With 208 rooms and 8,000 square feet of meeting space, The Ben West Palm will open to the public on February 13 and begin accepting meeting groups as of February 17. Set near the huge Palm Harbor Marina on the Intracoastal Waterway, the property boasts the only top-floor ballroom in the city.
At 4,000 square feet, the Heron Ballroom (pictured here) is divisible by three, with two of the sections featuring glass walls that provide panoramic views across the Intracoastal to Palm Beach Island and the famed oceanfront resort The Breakers Palm Beach. The ballroom has its own outdoor covered patio; prefunction space separates it from an outdoor cocktail lounge and the property’s rooftop pool.
Other meeting space is located on the ground floor of the eight-story hotel: There’s a 16-person executive boardroom plus The Studio, an 1,800-square-foot room that features high ceilings, a gallery-like atmosphere, and clear roll-up garage doors on two sides. Divisible by two, The Studio can be configured and furnished in different ways to accommodate interactive and creative sessions. Another possible event space is a triangular park set between the hotel’s entrance and the Intracoastal that can host tented special events.
The hotel’s restaurant, Proper Grit (pictured here), offers seasonal menus that feature many ingredients from Palm Beach County, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the country. Nearly two dozen other restaurants are found in the Clematis Street entertainment district one block away. Group-tour possibilities near the hotel include Worth Avenue, a shopping district on par with New York’s Fifth Avenue and Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive; and Billionaires Row, an oceanfront road featuring Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate plus dozens of other easily-viewed mansions. A new multi-level, indoor-outdoor golf/entertainment/dining facility called Drive Shack opened recently 10 minutes west of the property. And 40 minutes away, Lion Country Safari Park offers a drive-through African wildlife viewing experience of more than 1,000 animals across 600 acres.
The Ben West Palm is 1.5 miles from the Palm Beach Convention Center and 4.5 miles from Palm Beach International Airport, a 12-minute drive. (View from the ballroom's covered patio, below)
