Upping the ante: a surge in upscale hotels gives Miami-Dade a leg up on the convention and corporate meetings market

South Florida CEO, Jan-Feb, 2005 by Rowland Stiteler

When the Four Seasons Hotel Miami opened on Brickell Avenue a little more than a year ago, it marked a pair of major milestones.

The new hotel was a first in South Florida for the well-known Four Seasons five-star hotel brand, which carries clout in the corporate meetings industry. Moreover, its 70-story tower gave Miami a lasting landmark: the tallest building south of Atlanta. That combination had architectural and financial ramifications, according to William D. Talbert, CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"It's somewhat symbolic that the tallest building in Florida would in fact be a five-star hotel complex in Miami," Talbert says. "Because Miami has been on a roll during the past four years: a non-stop parade of top-end hotel properties have popped up around the city to really transform it in terms of the meetings and convention market." During the four years since the opening of the Loews Miami Beach, Talbert says, approximately 50 hotels have opened in Miami-Dade, the lion's share of them upscale hotels appealing to the domestic and international corporate meetings market. "We've gone from being under-built, in terms of five-star hotels, to having the best portfolio of them I know of in any destination in America," he says.

Hotel industry analysts and meeting planners agree with Talbert's assessment.

"In terms of high-end corporate meetings and corporate incentives, Miami, while a wonderfully appealing destination, was at a disadvantage in terms of not having sufficient upscale hotel accommodations," says Mona Meretsky, CEO of Fort Lauderdale-based Comcor Event & Meeting Production. "You were hard-pressed to find significant numbers of rooms in hotels with amenities that have become the standard for high-echelon conference properties in other cities--features like gourmet restaurants and European-style spas within the hotels, plus top-notch meeting facilities, in which the CEO of a Fortune 500 company would feel comfortable conducting a meeting."

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Perhaps the most noticeable statement of what has happened in the Miami-Dade hotel market is that in a period of a little more than two years, it went from having no Ritz-Carlton brand hotels to having three: in South Beach, Coconut Grove and Key Biscayne.

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"There is no other city in the world [that has] three Ritz-Carltons, and the fact that Miami does, speaks to how the corporate meetings industry has taken hold here," says Scott Brush, an independent hotel industry analyst based in Miami. Corporate travel and meetings are a core, high-margin business for five-star hotels, he explains.

Liam Doyle, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton South Beach, says business at all three Ritz-Carltons is thriving. "All three of the Ritz-Carltons have distinctive personalities, but the fact that all three can flourish simultaneously in this market shows that Miami is a sophisticated, international city that was truly ready for our type of hotel when we arrived," he says.

Most analysts and meeting planners agree the watershed event for the Miami-Dade area was the 1999 opening of the Loews Miami Beach, which brought 680 hotel rooms and 65,000 square feet of meeting space all within walking distance of the Miami Beach Convention Center.

"It was the first new, beachfront hotel that had opened in Miami in more than a decade," Brush says. "It more or less opened the floodgates for what has been an incredible run of hotel development."

Joining the Loews later on were the three Ritz-Carltons; the Four Seasons; the Mandarin Oriental; the Trump International Sonesta Beach Resort in Sunny Isles Beach; the JW Marriott; the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza Resort (adjacent to the Loews) and the Conrad Miami, a Hilton property that opened last October.

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Ann Saucier, executive meeting planner for CitiGroup International's Latin American regional headquarters in downtown Miami, frequently uses the nearby Mandarin Oriental for events ranging from international conferences to local holiday parties.

"I've been planning meetings and conferences for CitiGroup in Miami since 1993," she says. "And until just two or three years ago, our corporate meeting options where limited by availability of appropriate hotel facilities. Now, for anything from a full-scale international conference to a luncheon for a corporate meeting that might be held inside our own building, the hotel choices around here are very attractive."

Frederick Fung, director of catering and conferences at the Mandarin Oriental, agrees with Saucier. Hotels like his, Fung says, will spur a growth in the international meetings business in Miami. "I think there is an appreciation in the corporate world for the type of high-level, personalized service we can offer," he says. "And with other currencies strong against the dollar now, I think it's logical to see more international meetings coming our way."

Talbert says the upscale hotel openings are likely to keep coming. "Canyon Ranch, for instance, a renowned name among luxury spas, is opening a new beachfront condo and hotel resort in Miami Beach in late 2005, which will be another property that will make a splash in the upscale meetings market," Talbert says.