Chains Compete To Build Fort Lauderdale Convention Hotel

Sun-Sentinel:

Marriott and Hilton are locked in a pitched battle to do what no one has succeeded in doing in 2 decades: build a hotel to serve Broward County’s convention center and boost that emerging piece of the area’s tourism trade.

Each industry giant proposes a 1,000-room luxury hotel on county land next to the convention center off 17th Street in Fort Lauderdale. The project will cost more than $400 million, but county officials are not offering any cash contribution of taxpayer money to help pay for construction unlike the last time they considered a hotel.

Tourism executives have long bemoaned the lack of a hotel because meeting planners often shun a destination where they cannot ensure attendees can stay at the same place as the convention. A county-paid analysis estimated the convention center’s impact on the area economy could grow from $81.6 million annually to $118 million if there is a companion hotel.