cut through some of that by allowing folks to go through the building in the middle rather than just along the perimeter.” Part of Sacramento’s burgeoning hospitality industry is the new hotel product coming online. Currently the city offers 2,000 hotel rooms walkable from the convention center, and “we have about 800 rooms coming to downtown and a couple more [hotels] on the drawing board, so we hope over the next three years or so to add about 1,200 rooms downtown,” Testa explains. A couple of small hotels will debut in the city this year. A 172-room Hyatt Centric property, a transformation of the 105-year-old Hotel Marshall and nearby Jade apartments, opens adjacent to the Golden 1 Center in late 2020. In addition, a 105-room Fort Sutter Hotel, a Tapestry by Hilton property, will open in Midtown near the B Street Theater. In addition, the culinary scene is gaining recognition, with over 300 restaurants near the convention center and 1.5 million acres of surrounding active farmland. “We had our first Michelin Guide come out last year. That’s a pretty good illustration of the caliber of restaurants we have in the city,” Testa says. “It’s been a huge selling point for Sacramento.”
LOS ANGELES
In the areas of sports, entertainment and the arts, L.A. is already among the most prominent cities in the nation. But its renown will increase on these fronts with the opening of two major venues in the near future: SoFi Stadium and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Both promise meeting attendees new sources of free-time diversion and group experiences. Opening this summer, the 70,000-seat SoFi Stadium at Hollywood Park will be home to the Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams. Scheduled highlights include an opening concert by Taylor Swift on July 25 and 26, Super Bowl LVI in 2022 and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2028 Olympics. The largest stadium in the NFL, SoFi Stadium includes more than 260 luxury suites and more than
13,000 premium seats. Adjacent to the stadium is the 2.5-acre American Airlines Plaza and a 6,000-seat performance venue. The $1 billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, expected to open in Exposition Park late next year, is a 275,000-sq.-ft. facility housing George Lucas’ personal collection of art, consisting of approximately 10,000 paintings and illustrations along with Hollywood memorabilia from landmark films such as Star Wars and The Ten Commandments. Designed by famed architect Ma Yansong, the museum will feature two state-of-the-art cinematic theaters, digital classrooms, 11 acres of green space, a restaurant and special event spaces. Downtown L.A. is not only replete with points of interest such as the Los Angeles Conservancy, North Grand Avenue and Little Tokyo, but it’s also “meetings central.” The ASM Global-managed the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) offers 720,000 sq. ft. of exhibit hall space, 147,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, 64 column-free meeting rooms and a newly renovated 299-seat theater. The LACC is also on the leading edge of both technology and sustainability, with LEED Gold certification and 5G network capability. The quality of the LACC is matched by that of Los Angeles’ hotel portfolio, which has recently undergone upgrades. One of the most significant projects is the $50 million, property-wide renovation of the 984-room Los Angeles Airport Marriott, completed at the end of 2018.
Los Angeles’ Chinatown
Echo Park, with Downtown Los Angeles in the background FACILITIES & DESTINATIONS 2020 SPRING
The project refreshed the hotel’s 27 meeting rooms, totaling 54,640 sq. ft. of space. New restaurants include the Social Market & Eatery, JW’s Steakhouse, and Hangar 18 Bar & Kitchen. A more recent upgrade is the 297-suite W Los Angeles - West Beverly Hills’ $4 million function space renovation, completed in December 2019. The hotel’s 5,000 sq. ft. of function space now has a modernized design and state-of-the-art audiovisual with cascading projection screens as well as smart screens featuring the latest Bluetooth technology. Each space has a dedicated sound system and a media wall in the prefunction space. Several boutique hotels are also making news in L.A., including the 220-room Godfrey Hotel Hollywood, featuring the 6,000-sq.-ft. Rooftop Pool & Bar; the 174-room The Hoxton, LA, located 33
