CHARLOTTE, NC— Eight group meetings ranging from 50 to several hundred persons had to relocate their events because the Westin hotel here has delayed its opening yet again, reported the Charlotte Observer. Last week, official for the city, which partially finance the 700-room hotel, reported the Westins opening will be Jan. 21, not Dec. 18. Less than two months ago, the opening date had been pushed from November to December. Both delays were blamed on damage from heavy rains that struck the city in mid-July. These delays come at a time when convention bookings are already lagging behind their expected pace, particularly for 2004 and 2005. Jon Kimball, the Westins general manager, staffers at Visit Charlotte, the former Charlotte Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the delay could have been much worse. December and January are typically the slowest months for hotel and convention bookings, so there were relatively few reservations to reschedule. And other center city hotels have plenty of room to take on the extra meetings, they claimed. The largest meeting affected is the convention of the American Correctional Association, scheduled to bring 3,000 people Jan. 13-14. The group had reserved 300 rooms at the Westin, but hotel officials were able to move the block to the nearby Adams Mark, which was already hosting other members of the same convention, Kimball said. The delays are blamed on up to 2 inches of rain that fell in parts of Mecklenburg within about 90 minutes during a mid-July storm. The rains soaked into and ruined the Sheetrock that had been installed on nearly all floors of the 25-story building, said John Deem, spokesman for J.A. Jones Inc., the general contractor for the project. The city paid $16 million of the $143 million projects construction. SOURCE: Charlotte Observer
