special section Cleveland More to explore with $2 billion in newdevelopments
This past winter, Cleveland began rolling out the first of a long line of new project open- ings, renovations, and expansions that will touch every part of the Cleveland meeting experience. In December, the Kalahari Indoor Waterpark Resort in Sandusky debuted a $22-million expansion that doubled the size of its convention center to 215,000 square feet, and this spring the first phase of the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland will open in the historic Higbee Building on Public Square. Perhaps the most anticipated project in the works is the Cleveland Medical Mart &
Convention Center, due to open in August of 2013. The medical mart will include perma- nent showrooms for medical manufacturers and service providers, and the convention center, which will be available to groups from any industry, will offer 226,000 square feet of exhibition space. Cleveland’s attractions and event spaces
are growing both in sheer numbers and in square footage. The new, 70,000-square- foot Greater Cleveland Aquarium opened in January, and the Museum of Contempo- rary Art Cleveland (MOCA) will move into a
new, 34,000-square-foot, four-story home this fall. The International Exposition Center, with more than one million square feet of contiguous exhibition and conference space, will invest up to $35 million for upgrades dur- ing the next few years.
For more information on what’s new for meetings in Cleveland, visit clevelandmeetings.com.
Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center (Opening August 2013)
• Total event space: 319,000 square feet • Total exhibit space: 226,000 square feet • Total ballroom space: 43,000 square feet • Total meeting space: 93,000 square feet • Maximum number of breakout rooms: 35
Hotels
• Total rooms: 3,917 • Total rooms within walking distance of convention center: 3,238
Attractions
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum • Horseshoe Casino Cleveland • Cleveland Orchestra • Cleveland Museum of Art • Great Lakes Science Center
Medical Marketplace Aiming for LEED Silver certification, the new Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center will be the world’s first facility of its kind targeted specifically to the health-care industry.
Air transportation Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE), just 12 miles from downtown, offers more than 250 daily flights to more than 75 nonstop destinations, and is the Midwest hub for United Airlines.