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VENDOR SPOTLIGHT – Meeting in the “New” New York City

New York City is one of the world’s most iconic meeting destinations thanks to its abundance of world-class hotels, conference venues and cultural attractions. Of course, part of what makes the city so special is that it is constantly changing. Here is an overview of recently opened and renovated convention hotels, as well as a look at the $1.5 billion transformation of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center over the next four years and other major infrastructure projects around the City.

New Hotels

Ian Schrager’s much-anticipated Public Hotel opened in June on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The chic 367-room hotel has 5,700 square feet of indoor event space on its 17th floor rooftop, which offers gorgeous 360-degree city views and also features an attached terrace. Public Arts, the hotel’s progressive, multimedia performance space, and two dedicated board rooms off the lobby are also available for private events. Catering is provided in-house, with special menus from Jean-Georges Vongerichten that can be customized for any size event.

May marked the debut of Hotel 50 Bowery, a 229-room Joie de Vivre property with 1,700 square feet of dedicated meeting space located in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The hotel’s six event spaces include a private boardroom that’s perfect for intimate meetings and a 5,000 square-foot outdoor terrace with views of the Manhattan Bridge. The rooftop bar has both indoor and outdoor space available for private events. All events are catered by chef Dale Talde’s in-house team.

February saw two notable additions to the City’s hotel inventory. The 612-room DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel New York Times Square West opened in Manhattan. The property’s meeting spaces include the 4,000-square-foot Lovage Rooftop Lounge, an indoor space that offers 360-degree views of the City skyline through 17-foot, floor-to-ceiling windows and has a wraparound outdoor terrace, and the intimate Times Square Room, a dedicated meeting space that is available for groups of up to 15 attendees, among other options. Brooklyn welcomed the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, which skirts the border of the borough’s Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights neighborhoods. The waterfront hotel has 194 guest rooms and 21,000 square feet of meeting space, including the 6,025-square-foot Meadow Rue Ballroom and a seasonal rooftop space.

Last year saw the debut of the 250-room Arlo Hotel NoMad, a trendy property near the Empire State Building with 5,475 square feet of meeting space designed with flexibility in mind. Options for groups include several classroom spaces that are stocked with books and light wood furniture, Massoni, the Arlo NoMad’s cheerful Italian restaurant from Dale Talde, David Massoni and John Bush, and the gorgeous 31st-floor rooftop terrace, as well as several other spaces.

Newly Renovated Hotels

Two Midtown Manhattan hotels have gotten major makeovers. This spring, the 1,298-room Grand Hyatt New York debuted a multimillion-dollar refresh of its conference level, which has 12,000 square feet of meeting space and includes a variety of more intimate meeting rooms, including 18 breakout rooms. The hotel sits directly across Park Avenue from Grand Central Terminal and has 60,000 square feet of meeting-and-event space in all, including two ballrooms, the largest of which is more than 18,000 square feet.

Last month the One UN New York, a Millennium Hotels and Resorts property, joined the Hilton family. The hotel, now known as the Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza, is located within the United Nations enclave along the East River and has 439 rooms and 8,191 square feet of meeting space. The property features six spaces for events, including the 2,146-square-foot Diplomat Ballroom and the 1,740-square-foot Land Mark View room. Earlier this year the hotel wrapped up a $70 million renovation that had been carried out in several phases.

Javits Expansion

The City’s 1.8-million-square-foot Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is currently undergoing a large-scale expansion and renovation that, when complete, will nearly double its footprint and increase its meeting space by a factor of five. The project includes the addition of a 55,000-square-foot ballroom—the largest in the Northeast—a rooftop terrace that will accommodate up to 1,500 attendees and a four-level truck garage with 27 new loading docks. Construction began in December of last year and is expected to wrap up by 2021.

Infrastructure Updates

Your delegates will benefit from recent improvements to the City’s public transportation. After years of construction, the Second Avenue Subway line extension opened on Manhattan’s east side in January, providing a direct connection between Midtown Manhattan and the Upper East Side. The City’s ferry service has also been expanded, with new routes running to Manhattan from Brooklyn and Queens.

Last summer LaGuardia Airport broke ground on an $8 billion comprehensive redesign. Terminal B will be rebuilt as a 1.3 million-square-foot building with 35 gates and Terminals C and D, which are currently operated by Delta Air Lines, will enjoy a direct connection to the rest of the airport. Construction is set to be completed by 2021.

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Thomas RaddeVENDOR SPOTLIGHT – Meeting in the “New” New York City