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Battle in Fort Lauderdale to build new convention hotel
Who’s going to build a 1,000-room luxury hotel on convention center-owned land in Fort Lauderdale? Marriott or Hilton?
The two hope to do what no one else has been able to for two decades: build a hotel to serve Broward County’s convention center.
Whoever does the project will be looking at a cost of more than $400 million, says the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
“But county officials are not offering any cash contribution of taxpayer money to help pay for construction unlike the last time they considered a hotel.”
Tourism executives have long bemoaned the lack of a hotel because meeting planners often shun a destination where they cannot ensure attendees can stay at the same place as the convention, says the newspaper.
A county-paid analysis estimated the convention center’s impact on the area economy could grow from $81.6 million annually to $118 million if there is a companion hotel.
“We continue to lose business because we can’t provide a single location,” said Nicki Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. “This destination has climbed into the first tier of meeting destinations, but we need a hotel.”
The convention center, at Port Everglades, hosts about 280 events a year and relies on as many as 50 hotels to provide rooms to meeting attendees.
Hilton and Marriott emerged this month as the finalists among four companies that bid on the project. The county dropped Starwood Hotels and Gaylord Entertainment from consideration because they did not provide all the information officials wanted.
The County Commission is expected to choose between the two companies by the end of the year.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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