Things are heating up in the desert, and it’s not just the mercury that’s rising.
Traditionally a draw for its premier golf and celebrity watching, the Palm Springs Desert Resorts area is now atop the meetings marquee due to its coming attractions.
“We’re rapidly approaching $2 billion [in new and enhanced product], and that is just the beginning,” says Robert Enriquez, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention and Visitors Authority.
Major new headliners in the destination—encompassing the cities of Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, Indio, La Quinta, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, and Rancho Mirage—include the new $500 million Ritz-Carlton, Rancho Mirage, which when open next year will offer 244 guest rooms, 154 residential units, a 25,000-square-foot La Prairie destination spa, and 20,000 square feet of meeting space.
Also in Rancho Mirage, Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa in April finished a $300 million project adding a new 340-room hotel, 13,000-square-foot conference center, and spa to its existing casino site.
Taking the stage in downtown Palm Springs is the swank new Riviera Resort & Spa, which is rising to revisit its heyday as a stylish celebrity hangout. Scheduled for a fall opening, the totally redone Riviera will offer 406 guest rooms, an 11,000-square-foot SpaTerra and 45,000 square feet of meeting space, second only in size to the Palm Springs Convention Center, which recently expanded itself.
Downtown Palm Springs boasts plans for a 200-room Mondrian hotel in 2010, a Hard Rock Hotel offering 40,000 square feet of meeting space set for a 2009 opening, and the 180-room Ace Hotel and Swim Club with 4,000 square feet of event space this winter.
Major improvements to existing properties include—but are certainly not limited to—the following: a major “modernist” renovation to the Holiday Inn Palm Springs City Center, with 249 rooms and 8,000 square feet of meeting space; a $35 million remodel of Rancho Mirage’s Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa; 24 new luxury villas at Hyatt Grand Champions Resort, Villas & Spa in Indian Wells; a new 6,000-square-foot ballroom at Indian Wells’ Miramonte Resort & Spa; a new lobby, meeting space, restaurants, and lounges at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa, also in Indian Wells; and a major renovation of the Spa at Desert Springs at Palm Desert’s Desert Springs, A JW Marriott Resort & Spa.
And to handle the influx of visitors, Palm Springs International Airport recently pumped $17 million into a new regional terminal.
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Palm Springs Desert Resorts CVA 800.967.3767 www.palmspringsusa.com
