Los Angeles Offers More Than Sun and Surf, Adds Rooms

<B>Los Angeles Offers More Than Sun and Surf, Adds Rooms</B>

By Erin Szeto

While famous for its sun, surf and stars, the city of Los Angeles has more to offer the business traveler than meets the eye. The nation's second largest city not only touts a variety of interesting meeting locations and opportunities, but also is in the midst of several projects that will increase the number of hotel rooms by more than 3,000 by 2004.

Bill Buckley, executive vice president of the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the city is an ideal location for corporate travelers as well.

"Los Angeles has an edge to it," he said. "If anything happens in technology, the arts, the community, it will happen here. We also have an incredibly diverse offering of facilities."

Among those facilities are some of the more unusual meeting locations in the nation, including Hollywood sound stages, the back lots of movie studios and Universal Studios.

"One company even held its meeting inside the swimming pool at the Hollywood Athletic Club," Buckley said. "No other city offers such a diverse range of options. The amount of unique venues here in L.A. is really mind-boggling."

In addition to being different, various Los Angeles meeting locales also have a strong sense of history to them. The Hollywood Roosevelt Ballroom was the location of the first-ever Academy Awards, and the Staples Center has held everything from Lakers games to Madonna concerts.

Los Angeles hotels are different in their own right as well. Some, like the Wyndham Checkers Hotel, have added state-of-the-art spas, while a newly renovated El Dorado Hotel is scheduled to open mid-next year in a historic bank building downtown. With its classy gothic revival and art nouveau styles, the El Dorado hotel and restaurant complex is among one of the many major projects that locals are hoping will spruce up the somewhat lackluster downtown area, which has been struggling to maintain occupancy levels of 50 percent (BTN, July 31, 2000). The $25 million hotel will offer 6,000 square feet of meeting space and 150 guest rooms.

Also planned for downtown is a 200-room Downtown Standard Hotel set to open early this fall. Located downtown near the Staples Center, the property's distinctive feature will be the several rooms designed especially for the NBA. The customized rooms will offer nearly 1,000 square feet of space, nine-ft. beds and bathrooms with eight-ft. tubs.

"Los Angeles used to be like a donut: There were a lot of things on the periphery, but nothing in the middle," said El Dorado co-owner Marc Smith. "Now, downtown is getting new hotels and apartments--the city is finding its center."

Over in Hollywood, a Renaissance Hollywood Hotel is expected to open in December. The 22-story hotel will offer 640 rooms, approximately 50,000 square feet of meeting space and a 25,090-sq.-ft. grand ballroom, which will be one of the largest ballrooms in Los Angeles. Events also can be conducted in the 2,000-sq.-ft. presidential suite, which can accommodate receptions for up to 1,200 people.

The hotel itself is part of real estate developer TrizecHahn's $615 million Hollywood and Highland project to renovate Hollywood Boulevard and develop an open-air, four-story complex that will include theaters, restaurants, clubs, retail shops, movie studios, a live broadcast center and a 3,500-seat Kodak Theater. The Kodak, which will be the new permanent home of the Academy Awards starting next March, opens in November and also will be used for meeting space, concerts and comedy shows. The completed Hollywood and Highland project is set to open late this winter.

Overall, a majority of Los Angeles hotels are revamping their facilities to better accommodate business travelers. Most have or are in the process of installing high-speed Internet access and business centers, and several, such as the Omni and Le Meridien at Beverly Hills, have even added fax machines in the guest rooms. Several hotels, including the Westin Bonaventure and Millennium Biltmore, also are reconfiguring their rooms and meeting spaces to be more responsive to business and meeting needs.

"The convention market in Los Angeles used to be really low because the city couldn't house anyone," Smith said. "But with many of the right developments that are in place right now, L.A. is filling up, and we've spawned a regeneration of the entire business area.