The Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC) is ready to welcome the city’s popular events with a slew of amenities, latest technology and new event spaces.
Following a three-year, $620-million-dollar renovation project in late 2018, the convention center offers 1.4 million square feet of flexible event space, approximately 10 acres of open green space, a 10,000-square-foot production kitchen, a curated art collection worth over $7.1 million and over 1,600 miles of technical cabling to support IT communications. Despite those renovations, COVID-19 forced event venues all over the world to shut temporarily and the MBCC was turned into an alternate care facility. The venue then added new services, expanded its event spaces and implemented changes that would better serve guests and event hosts in a post-pandemic world.
An 800-room Grand Hyatt Miami Beach is slated to open on-site in November 2025. The property will connect directly to the convention center and put conference guests and event planners right in the heart of the City Center District.
The MBCC has responded to the increased demand for open space venues by creating outdoor event spaces. Three such spaces include the six-acre Pride Park; the three-acre Collins Canal Park; and outdoor event space at the Carl Fisher Clubhouse, set to become the Rum Room + Venu, a new restaurant and event space. Onsite, the MBCC has three outdoor terraces: one outside the Sunset Ballroom and two outside the Grand Ballroom.
The MBCC is now under the management of OVG360—a new facilities division of Oak View Group (OVG) that debuted in early 2022 after OVG acquired Spectra in November 2021. OVG360 is a full-service venue management and hospitality company that helps client-partners "re-imagine" the sports, live entertainment and convention industries for the betterment of the venue, employees, artists, athletes and surrounding communities.
As a global sports, events and hospitality brand, Sodexo Live! is a hospitality partner for several convention centers in North America. The company brings a range of food and beverage options and outlets to the convention center, which will debut a new F&B outlet inside the 1916-built Carl Fisher Clubhouse.
The new bar restaurant, The Rum Room, will serve American cuisine with a Mediterranean influence and local South Florida rums in a 1920’s setting. This 2,200-square-foot destination features menus created by 20-year industry veteran and executive chef Ismael Lasalle. Part of the newly renovated complex, Venu, is a new 3,300-square-foot event space perfect for intimate gatherings, including wedding receptions and corporate functions.
As part of the venue’s $620 million renovation, Smart City Networks completed an upgrade of its technology capabilities, with a 10-gigabit redundant circuit providing wireless internet connection to implement faster network cabling speeds, built-in internet circuit redundancies and telephone services. The upgrade allows the venue to meet the data and technology needs of large-scale events.
Planned for 2022 is a complete, campus-wide installation of fiber connectivity from the MBCC to Pride Park with a permanent fiber patch panel located on the Southwest Corner of Pride Park, which will allow for a seamless wireless infrastructure for events utilizing indoor and outdoor venue space.
For more information, visit www.miamibeachconvention.com.
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