Manhattan Meeting Venues Offer Planners Unique Value

<B>Manhattan Meeting Venues Offer Planners Unique Value</B>

By Frank Rosci

Throughout Manhattan, there are dozens of meeting venues that rank as best-kept meeting secrets, and a number of these sites offer planners and groups the advantage of surprisingly low rates, the ambiance of a stylish setting and hotel-quality service.

Among New York's newest, most atmospheric and most unusual meeting and dining venues is Bateaux New York/Spirit Cruises Inc., said Anthony Napoli, president of Briggs Red Carpet Associates Inc. of New York.

"For about $95 per person, dinner, live music and the ambiance of a wonderful view of the New York skyline are included," Napoli said. The price offers great value and covers more than could be arranged for the same amount at many other venues in the city, he added.

Bateaux New York--sister company to Bateaux London and Bateaux Parisiens--is Manhattan's only all-glass dining yacht that is available for meetings, said a company spokeswoman. Celestial, the New York-based vessel that plies the city's waters, accommodates up to 300 people. It is equipped with a retractable soundproof wall that separates its two rooms: the Aurora (capacity 174) and Orion (capacity 126).

"I have chartered the whole boat and also taken groups of 20 or so," Napoli said. The boat is docked at Pier 61 in Chelsea Piers, which is a complex of piers on the Hudson River that offer meeting, dining, and sports and entertainment venues.

A company called Lots of Yachts, Lots of Spots also offers corporate groups an out-of-the-ordinary meeting venue, with dinner cruises around New York aboard a variety of vessels that range from a 70-ft. sailboat for up to 30 attendees to a 167-ft. yacht for up to 500, said Misha Dzinovic, the company's vice president. Clients have included AT&T, CBS and Bankers Trust, Dzinovic noted.

Another one of the city's real finds for meetings and other functions is the New York Academy of Medicine, said Lillian O'Connor, president of Custom Meetings International in Staten Island, N.Y. "It's a little-known gem, where the service is well beyond hotel service," she said, and added that rates also are lower than at comparable New York venues.

O'Connor found the site while looking to meet the budgetary constraints for a series of meetings for the New York City Department of Health in 1997-98. Meeting space (totaling 17,000 square feet on five floors) in the early Romanesque-style building, ranges from traditional settings to a modern conference facility. There are 10 distinctive meeting rooms, including Hosack Hall, a 530-seat two-tiered auditorium with 161 of the seats in a balcony; the multi-function President's Gallery; and the Wood-Carved Library and adjacent Periodical Room. Room capacities range from six to 530 attendees. The site also offers in-house catering, business center services and additional conference services, such as travel arrangements and onsite registration.

The Academy is located across the street from the Central Park Conservancy and next to the Museum of the City of New York--"two especially appealing city sites that contribute to the overall attractiveness of the Academy as a meeting venue," said Janet Levoff, director of communications at the Academy.

Besides the Department of Health, other groups who recently have met at the Academy, include Home Box Office, Merck & Co. Inc. and Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, Levoff said.

Rates for the Academy's various rooms depend on size, and range from $250 to $6,000 for a full day, said Cynthia McConnell, the site's events coordinator. The Academy's Rare Book Room, which also is available for groups functions, rents for $1,450 per day.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Chelsea Piers and the surprising variety of what it offers have been used by Patrick Sullivan, co-owner of PRA Destination Management in New York. "It's simply an amazing place that gives people the sense of being on a ship," he said. "With everything from meetings and meals to entertainment under one roof, 365 days a year, there is simply nothing else like it in the country."

Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers always manages to amaze meeting planners and guests by "taking the level of service up above that of a hotel, with a high ratio of staff to guests," said Michael Warren, director of catering. In addition to the service and food quality, the site's level of technical sophistication also always surprises groups, Warren said, adding that Microsoft, Dell Computers and Chase Manhattan are some of the groups that recently have met at Pier Sixty. The onsite Lighthouse Ballroom also is available for groups, and rental prices for Pier Sixty's various spaces fluctuate, depending on the quantity of people and food and beverage generated.

Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment specializes in corporate outings, especially team building. Activities range from team sports, rock climbing, ice skating and rollerblading. There also is a golf driving range. "Many of the activities and diversions here are a twist and a surprise to planners, and an ideal way for a group to unwind after a few days of long, intense meetings," a spokesman said.

The Bridgewaters/Museum Club-- one of four Glazier Group locations in New York, where fully 66 percent of business is corporate--is another of the city's meeting hot spots, said Benita Gold, executive vice president. "It's a large, flexible space conveniently located near Wall Street and the financial district," she said.

The recently renovated venue, which offers dramatic views of the Brooklyn Bridge, accommodates 50 to 800 attendees for a meeting in the Bridge Room, up to 200 for a Terrace Room meeting, and 50 to 500 for a meeting in the Museum Club. The 24,000-sq.-ft. site also includes a 5,000-sq.-ft. terrace.

The Glazier Group's other New York meeting, banquet and reception venues are Tapika for meetings and product launches; the famous Monkey Bar for receptions for up to 300 attendees; and Michael Jordan's The Steak House N.Y.C. for small meetings. Meal functions also are available at each.

Another of the city's many surprise values is the Sky Club, said Paige Amesbury, events coordinator at MetLife Insurance Co. in New York. "At a recent millennium party for our former chairman, we found this site offered a memorable kind of ambiance and more value for money," she said. "For $100 a plate at a great restaurant, for example, you can give your group so much more value and atmosphere than for the same money spent at a hotel," Amesbury added. Functions at New York's restaurants are always a refreshing change over hotels, she said, and provide attendees, especially out of towners, with an unusual thrill and a great feel for the city's diversity.

Meanwhile, a nightclub called the Supper Club received a favorable nod by Karen Shackman, president of Shackman Associates International in New York. "We use the space for things like pre-theater dinners for groups, because it's very reasonably priced." The Supper Club accommodates groups of 20 to 300 people.

Another favorite venue of Shackman's is 202 East, a meeting and function space in an apartment building on New York's Upper East Side. "For the pricy, upscale neighborhood in which it's located, the rates here are surprisingly good," Shackman said. The Whitney Museum of American Art is another venue Shackman recommends for small groups, because "it's very inexpensive as museums in New York go."

Tentatively scheduled to open in the revitalized Times Square this spring, the AMC Empire 25 Theatres will be a new, off-the-beaten-path meeting venue, said Bob Burrichter, marketing manager. "We will be aggressively marketing the AMC Empire 25 as a convenient, midtown, change-of-pace meetings venue," he said. It's hoped this pro-active approach, not at all common in the movie theater industry, will catch the attention of groups. "With the entrance through the fully restored landmark Empire Theatre into a 13-story, glass-walled building, this promises to be a totally different kind of setting for meetings and groups, especially if the group wants a screening to accompany its meeting."

Each of the theaters will be state-of-the-art auditoriums equipped with stadium seating, plush high-back seats and capacities for groups of up to 600 people. There will be a total of 5,000 seats, as well as two conference spaces and three large outdoor terraces, each with dramatic views of Times Square.

"We see our source-of-business markets as corporations from Manhattan, especially midtown and the burgeoning Times Square area, as well as out-of-town groups that might be attending a convention at the Javits Convention Center and need a convenient, nearby site to host breakout or company meetings," said Burrichter.

The AMC Empire 25 will be working closely with the newly named Hilton Times Square Hotel, formerly the Doubletree, a 444-room property located above the theaters, Burrichter said. "The hotel--opening in May--will have only 7,000 square feet of meeting space, so we will be positioning ourselves as an extension of its meeting space.