Convention Center Business Spurs Hotel Development

<I>San Antonio</I> - This Texas riverfront city is rearing its head as a premiere business destination with several improvements in conference facilities and a sharp increase in the number of hotel rooms.

San Antonio's primary convention center, Gonzales Convention Center, is in the midst of a $187 million renovation and expansion that will increase meeting space to 40,000 square feet by spring 1999. The new facility will offer about 1.2 million square feet, including a 43,000-square-foot ballroom overlooking the downtown area. Since the center's original opening in 1969, both the number of conventions per year and the annual delegate count has grown to 1,391 meetings and conventions in 1996, attracting about 600,000 delegates.

The downtown area also offers a second major public meeting and convention venue, the historic San Antonio Municipal Auditorium and Conference Center, originally built in 1926 and restored to its original grandeur after it was gutted by a fire in 1979. The center offers theater-style seating for 4,900 and has 23,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space.

Downtown San Antonio's two major meeting and trade show venues have attracted a considerable amount of hotel development, with more than 6,000 downtown hotel rooms, said Claudia Cardenas, a spokeswoman for the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau. Since expansion plans for the Gonzales Center were announced in 1995, more than 3,000 rooms have been added to the city's overall hotel inventory of 25,000.

The city's popular Paseo del Rio, or River Walk, features several major meeting and business hotels, including the 1,000-room Marriott Rivercenter, the 496-room Marriott River Walk, the 337-room La Mansion Del Rio and the 481-room Hilton Palacio Del Rio.

Spending Downtime Downtown

Between conference sessions or business appointments, the River Walk offers a number of diversions which can be explored on foot.

"I think walking around in the area of the convention center is probably a pretty popular pursuit for convention delegates in any city," Cardenas said. "But there are few places that offer the diversity you can find here, ranging from historic shrines to trendy shopping areas. And with the new things that have been added in and around the River Walk area, the trendy aspect is just getting bigger and better."

For alternative meeting venues, the most recent move to blend the hip with the historic is Presidio Plaza, a complex along the River Walk that includes a Planet Hollywood restaurant. The Presidio, which has 10,000 square feet of space available for private events, also includes a venue called "The Edge," a 24-seat motion-simulation theater that allows the audience to feel like they are part of the action in each film rather than just observers.

Another trendy venue along the River Walk is South Bank, a collection of clubs and restaurants that includes a Hard Rock Cafe. The entire, 2.5-mile River Walk is an entertainment venue in itself, an immensely popular pedestrian thoroughfare that links key downtown sites like the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center and Rivercenter, a three-level, glass-enclosed shopping, dining and entertainment complex.

The River Walk, with cobblestone and flagstone walkways, sits 20 feet below street level, and like the San Antonio River itself, meanders through the heart of the city.

The city also offers a variety of art museums that can provide diversions during breaks. "One of the most popular side trips that planners organize for convention delegates is a walking tour of the downtown galleries," Cardenas said.

Museums include the San Antonio Museum of Art and the H-E-B Science Treehouse, which opened in March.