Showcase Destinations New York City: Capital of the World

It’s been dubbed “The City That Never Sleeps,” “The Capital of the World” and “The Big Apple.” But no matter what moniker it goes by, New York, N.Y., is a city of superlatives.

The five boroughs that make up New York City—Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island—hold
bragging rights to the world’s largest department store, the world’s largest Gothic cathedral, the United States’ oldest municipal golf course and much more. With world-class museums, musical entertainment such as Broadway shows and Lincoln Center concerts and an abundance of restaurants ranging from Italian food to French fare and Asian cuisine, New York is a perennial visitor magnet. And for two consecutive years, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics have placed New York at the top of the list of the safest large U.S. cities.

The good news for meeting planners is that New York not only offers some of the most exciting venues, but also accommodates meetings of virtually any size and budget. The city boasts more than 70,000 hotel rooms and many unique venues.

Three airports serve New York with more than 1 million flights each year and competitive prices. Getting around the city is just as easy as getting there. New York boasts nearly 13,000 taxis and 500 subway stations, and this ease of access translates into high meeting attendance.

MANHATTAN
The center of New York’s glitz and glamour, the island of Manhattan glitters with the bright lights of Broadway, designer boutiques, world-renowned museums such as the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art—which moved into its new digs in November—and some of the world’s best meeting venues.
The most significant news in Manhattan for meeting planners is the proposed expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Center, New York’s largest convention center.

The center currently stretches from 34th to 39th streets and from 11th to 12th avenues. Mike Eisgrau, the center’s director of public affairs, explains that it will expand north to 42nd Street in two phases. Phase I will extend Javits to 40th Street, adding 300,000 square feet of space and bringing its size up to 1.1 million square feet. In addition, a 1,500-room hotel will be built on the corner of 42nd Street and 11th Avenue, connecting to Javits via a glassed walkway. Phase I will include the creation of an 86,000-square-foot ballroom, which will be the city’s largest, capable of seating 6,000. Phase II will add 200,000 square feet to the center and bring the total expansion to 1.3 million square feet.

“The Javits Center will be creating more than 10 times the amount of its present 28,000 square feet of dedicated meeting space,” Eisgrau said. “When the expansion is done, there will be more than 300,000 square feet of dedicated meeting space.”

Another famous venue for large functions is Madison Square Garden (MSG). Annually hosting hundreds of events, the facility boasts a 21,000-square-foot main arena seating 20,000. In addition, The Theater at MSG, with a seating capacity of 5,600, is a multiuse facility with ultramodern amenities. The 3,600-square-foot Expo Center at MSG houses state-of-the-art TV production facilities, with additional areas for meetings and catering.

The Show Piers on the Hudson offer spectacular settings overlooking Man-hattan’s Hudson River. Located in the New York City Passenger Ship Terminal, the three glass-enclosed piers span 225,000 square feet and accommodate functions ranging from small corporate events in one pier to trade shows in all three.

Just a few blocks north of the Show Piers, you’ll find Pier 94 New York, which bills itself as the “UnConvention Center.” Pier 94 offers sweeping views of the Hudson River and is made up of 175,000 square feet of space with skylights, suitable for flexible configurations and events for up to 10,000.

These venues are just the beginning. Convention and meeting hotels abound in New York. Choose from the world-famous Waldorf=Astoria, with more than 40 distinctive settings for a wide range of functions, or The Westin New York at Times Square, located in the heart of Broadway. Glamorous settings for a variety of functions include the historic Roosevelt Hotel, opened on Sept. 22, 1924, offering more than 30,000 square feet of meeting and event space in midtown Manhattan—steps from Broadway and the Empire State Building—and the New York Marriott Marquis, boasting New York’s only revolving rooftop restaurant for stunning city views.

Manhattan offers a wealth of exciting and unique venues for any size event. For an elegant evening in grand Beaux Arts style, Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall, a historic New York landmark, provides 12,000 square feet of flexible space for 1,300 guests. Walls lined with Tennessee pink marble adorned with five stunning Beaux Arts chandeliers surround attendees as they meet beneath 48-foot ceilings.

For team building and special events, the 1,500-square-foot Culinary Loft in Manhattan’s SoHo features a 400-square-foot gourmet kitchen. Only steps from numerous art galleries and boutiques, this venue features exposed brick walls, dark oak floors and a baby grand piano.

Pressure—a 16,000-square-foot multimedia lounge—has been proclaimed by The New York Times to be an “amusement park for adults.” Available for groups of up to 500, the facility offers a variety of venues including bars, lounges and dance clubs.

Meetings in New York needn’t be confined to land. For functions with flair, meeting planners can take advantage of one of the world’s finest natural harbors. Spirit Cruises plies the quiet waters surrounding Manhattan in its three-deck Spirit of New York, which offers 17,000 square feet of function space. The company also offers 10,000 square feet aboard the Bateaux New York. While cruising serenely past historic monuments such as the Statue of Liberty, attendees can enjoy dinners and receptions.

BROOKLYN, THE BRONX,
STATEN ISLAND AND QUEENS
Although most people associate New York exclusively with Manhattan, the Big Apple has four additional boroughs: Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island and Queens. Each borough offers its own attractions and meeting spaces, including some one-of-a-kind venues.

Attendees in Brooklyn can view the nearby Manhattan skyline across the harbor. The borough boasts the famous Brooklyn Bridge and The New York City Aquarium. For meetings, the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, the borough’s only major luxury hotel, features one of the city’s largest ballrooms, just minutes from lower Manhattan. The Brooklyn Brewery, in the up-and-coming Williamsburg area, manufactures award-winning beers. The bubbly venue includes a 3,000-square-foot function room that can accommodate 300. Brooklyn also boasts the Grand Prospect Hall. The backdrop for films such as The Cotton Club and Prizzi’s Honor, this historic venue in the Park Slope area features 9,600 square feet of function space in stately surroundings.

The Bronx is the only New York borough on the U.S. mainland—the other four boroughs are islands. For a flower-filled offsite venue, the 250-acre New York Botanical Garden is a sanctuary of plant collections on rolling hills, replete with a cascading waterfall. The venue’s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is the largest U.S. Victorian glasshouse, crowned by a huge dome and flanked by reflecting pools filled with water lilies. The glasshouse serves as a backdrop for receptions for up to 500, and the venue’s catering facilities prepare dinners to follow in the Garden Terrace Room.
South of Manhattan, Staten Island is reached via a scenic ferry ride across the harbor. The borough features Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island, a living history restoration (similar to Colonial Williamsburg) complete with colonial buildings that groups won’t want to miss. Another urban oasis for groups is the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, an 83-acre National Historic District with 28 historic buildings set among gardens, a museum and a performing arts complex. Staten Island Botanical Garden is located here and offers numerous formal gardens, including the internationally renowned Chinese Scholars Garden and the Connie Gretz Secret Garden, modeled after the children’s classic.
Queens, New York’s largest borough, features the Aqueduct Race Track. In addition to horse races, the venue offers facilities for receptions, trade shows and corporate group functions. Aqueduct’s Equestris is New York’s largest restaurant, with a seating capacity for 1,500. Groups will also appreciate a special event at the Queens Museum of Art, which features the Panorama of the City of New York—the world’s largest architectural model, con-taining 895,000 individual structures at a scale of 1 inch equals 100 feet. 

TMP

LINDA TAGLIAFERRO is a freelance writer based in New York.

Long Island: New York’s Neighbor

Adjacent to New York City is a fish-shaped island stretching 118 miles. Flanked on its south shore by more than 50 miles of Atlantic Ocean beaches with powder-fine sands, aptly named Long Island is the largest island adjoining the continental United States. The island includes the counties of Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk. However, since Brooklyn and Queens are part of New York, most references to Long Island include only Nassau and Suffolk.

Long Island boasts some of the United States’ most challenging golf courses. Host in 2002 and 2004 to the United States Golf Association’s U.S. Open, Long Island affords attendees pre- and post-function golf time on more than 100 public and private courses.

Manhattan is only 15 miles from the Nassau County border, and New York has seven bridges and two tunnels that connect to the island’s western end. The United States’ largest commuter railroad, the Long Island Rail Road, operates more than 700 trains daily to and from New York City. Three major airports serve the island, and JFK International and LaGuardia airports are only a short drive away.

For conventions, the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale offers 72,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 60,000-square-foot exhibition hall. The coliseum is conveniently located next to the 617-room Long Island Marriott Hotel and Conference Center. The Marriott boasts 27,000 square feet of function space with 30 meeting rooms.

Just like its New York neighbor, Long Island offers planners dozens of unique venues for groups of all sizes. Strike Long Island in New Hyde Park is an extraordinary entertainment venue featuring 27 lanes of glow-in-the-dark bowling, a Formula 1-style go-kart track, billiard rooms, four bars, a VIP room, plush lounge areas and giant movie screens and high-tech audiovisual systems.

For more aquatically-inclined groups, the Atlantis Marine World Aquarium in Riverhead offers 10,000 square feet for receptions and sit-down dinners. And the facility’s huge shark tank and the largest living coral reef display in the northeastern United States will fascinate attendees.

A venue fit for a king is Oheka Castle, built in 1919 as the summer retreat of financier Otto Herman Kahn and the backdrop for the classic film Citizen Kane. This French chateau-style building in Cold Spring Hills features versatile function space for up to 400. This includes the 5,100-square-foot Terrace Ballroom, with sweeping views of the 23-acre estate’s formal gardens, re-created from the original design by Frederick Law Olmsted—the landscape designer of New York’s famed Central Park.

New York City By the Numbers

New York City
Rooms: 70,500
Meeting Facilities: The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center (1.8 million square feet), Hilton New York (151,000 square feet), Millennium Broadway New York (110,000 square feet), New York Marriott Marquis (100,000 square feet), The Waldorf=Astoria Hotel (60,000 square feet), Grand Hyatt New York (55,000 square feet), The Westin New York at Times Square (34,000 square feet), Hilton Garden Inn Staten Island (28,700 square feet), New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge (27,000 square feet), Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers (20,000 square feet), The Grand Prospect Hall in Brooklyn (9,600 square feet), Four Seasons Hotel New York (9,600 square feet), Hotel Gansevoort (8,600 square feet), Mandarin Oriental, New York (6,000 square feet)< /SPAN>

Long Island
Rooms: 15,000
Meeting Facilities: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (72,000 square feet), Suffolk County Community College Sports and Exhibition Complex (60,000 square feet), Long Island Marriott Hotel & Conference Center (27,000 square feet), The Garden City Hotel (25,000 square feet), Hyatt Regency Wind Watch (18,000 square feet)

Getting Started

Long Island CVB and
Sports Commission
www.funonli.com

NYC & Company
www.nycvisit.com

Your MPI Connection in
New York City

MPI Greater New York Chapter
Lesly D. Rehaut, CMP
(201) 599-9760
www.mpigny.org

What’s New in New York City

• The New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge broke ground in January on a $77 million renovation project. The planned 24-story expansion will add 280 guest rooms and comes on the heels of the hotel’s December renovation of it’s 18,000-square-foot Grand Ballroom. (For more information, see page 28.)
• The 158-room Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan Chelsea opens in the Chelsea area of Manhattan this month.
• The 755-room Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel
(formerly the Metropolitan Hotel) reopened in January after a $35 million renovation of guest rooms and meeting space.
• Scheduled to open in July 2006, the 150-room Four Points by Sheraton Soho Village will be the area’s first newly built moderately priced hotel.
• The historic Garden City Hotel in Garden City on Long Island recently made renovations to its Grand Ballroom, which can accommodate 650 attendees.
• The Hyatt Regency Wind Watch in Hauppauge (Long Island) began a $10 million renovation earlier this year.
The 260-room hotel currently offers 18,000 square feet of meeting space with 16 meeting rooms.