Feb. 22– Feb. 22–Palm Beach County tourism isn't just for beachgoers anymore.

Thanks to the 2016 opening of the Hilton convention center hotel, corporate meeting events are an increasing driver of the county's economy.

The potential business to be had from this growth is so profound that tourism planners are devising strategies for making the county a more prominent destination for meetings and corporate events.

Hotel developers are watching carefully.

Already, Radisson is finalizing plans to build an upscale Radisson Blu in downtown West Palm Beach. And a Miami-based hotel group is moving forward with a planned Indigo Hotel north of CityPlace.

At the center of the strategy is the county's Tourism Development Council and Discover the Palm Beaches, the non-profit group charged with marketing the county.

Led by Jorge Pesquera, who formerly led the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau and put the territory on the map as a meetings destination, Discover is working closely with hotel managers and corporate planners to position Palm Beach County for future growth.

The goal is to elevate the corporate meetings business to offset slow seasonal leisure tourism times and boost the county's overall economy.

The task is not easy, given the county's large size and diversity. But there's a plan for that, Pesquera said.

Discover sees the county divided into three distinct districts for corporate meetings and events.

The most prominent is the convention center district, anchored by the Palm Beach County Convention Center at 650 Okeechobee Boulevard. Once home to mostly recreational or art-related events, the convention center, built in 2004, got a major boost with the January 2016 opening of the 400-room Hilton Hotel. This allowed the convention center to target corporate and business meetings and events, with conferences typically needing 300 to 500 rooms.

"The arrival of the Hilton was a game changer," Pesquera said.

Discover reported a 98 percent increase in room nights booked by Discover's sales team for groups, meetings and conventions from 2014 through 2018.

Last year saw the highest convention booking, with 231,000 nights booked for hotel rooms.

When these conventions are in town, bookings rise at hotels near the convention center hotel, reflecting pent-up demand for meetings business in the county, said Kelly Cavers, senior vice president, group sales, for Discover.

That's because there isn't any other area of Florida that has this diversity and walkability, without the density, Cavers said.

But supply is not keeping pace with demand, both for hotel rooms and for convention center space.

A study just completed by HVS, a hospitality consulting firm, said the convention center could use another 600 hotel rooms immediately, within a half mile of the convention center.

That's because meeting attendees want to be able to walk to the convention center, or network under the same roof, Cavers said.

In addition, more hotel rooms also would give the convention center the ability to book larger meetings, she added.

But to really draw larger corporate events, another 1,000 rooms is needed, preferably at or very near the convention center site, Pesquera said. That would allow the convention center to book events featuring 1,000 to 1,500 attendees.

Without these extra rooms, the convention center is leaving money on the table.

Cavers said about 60 percent of group bookings lost by the convention center was due to lack of hotel rooms within a half-mile of the convention center. Another 40 percent lost was due to the lack of adequate convention center space.

That translates into 130,000 lost hotel room nights in 2018, and 98,600 room nights projected for 2019, the HVS study found.

Existing hotels downtown can't handle all the current and future business of the convention center.

At certain times, especially during the high season in winter, leisure travelers willing to pay higher rates are important customers, and hotels can't set aside all their rooms for corporate events. As a result, balance is crucial to managing visitors, Cavers said.

How to proceed with more hotels and convention center space?

That's for the experts to decide.

Plans are being finalized to seek proposals for a study on how best to expand the 365,000-square-foot convention center, said Glenn Jergensen, executive director of the county's Tourist Development Council.

With an exhibition hall of just 100,000-square-feet, tourism planners say they need guidance on how much extra space is needed to meet the needs of event planners who want larger exhibition space or more break-out rooms.

Boosting the corporate meeting business is good business not only for the convention center but also for the overall economy, Pesquera said.

Conventions book one or two years in advance and when attendees are in town, they frequent restaurants, shops and other ancillary businesses. They rent cars. They host events at museums.

While meeting planners prefer hotel rooms adjacent to a convention center, attendees also appreciate a diversity of hotel brands, Cavers said.

That's why it's important that West Palm Beach is seeing new players to the market, including Hilton's 150-room Canopy Hotel, now under construction at the southeast corner of South Dixie Highway and Trinity Place. Corporate events already are being booked for 2020 and beyond.

And more boutique hotels are on the way, too.

Radisson is finalizing plans for a 200-room Radisson Blu at 415 S. Dixie Highway, between Fern and Gardenia streets, real estate sources said. The site formerly was home to the beloved Russo's Submarine Shop. It sold in 2017 to a development group, which flipped it to a Fort Myers hotel developer last November for $2.5 million, county records show.

Radisson Blu is an upscale hotel brand, with each property designed individually for each city.

The property will consist of hotel rooms and rental apartments, said Rick Greene, development services director for the city of West Palm Beach. Greene said the Radisson plan still is in the works, but representatives have shown renderings of their proposed hotel to city officials.

Also coming: A hotel slated for north of CityPlace,the mixed-use dining and shopping center on Okeechobee Boulevard across from the convention center. Greene said Sunview Companies of Miami is moving ahead with a plan to build a 224-room Indigo Hotel at Railroad Avenue, between Third and Fourth streets.

Hotel business spun off from corporate events and meetings isn't just happening in the central part of the county, however.

Pesquera said there's a growing meeting business clustered in northern Palm Beach County, especially in and around PGA Boulevard.

Then there's the Boca Raton district, dubbed "Boca-wide," clustered around the Boca Raton Resort & Club. The Intracoastal Waterway resort already holds a number of corporate meetings at its event space, it is eager to work with the new and soon-to-come hotels in the area to help draw larger events needing more hotel rooms.

These hotels include the Waterstone (formerly The Bridge hotel); the newish Hyatt Place downtown, and the soon-to-come Mandarin Oriental, now under construction on Federal Highway. In all, the Boca hotel district will have nearly 1,600 rooms available, he said.