Foxwoods Commits To Meetings Biz With Massive Expansion

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. October 14, 2008

LEDYARD, CT, September 20, 2006. Foxwoods Resort Casino is rolling the dice with a $700 million expansion project which casino executives say is a sure bet. The creation of an all new resort is meant to rival the top casinos in Las Vegas and parlay the gaming destination into the meetings business big leagues when the new facility opens in spring 2008.

To make sure the property attracts upper echelon meetings, Foxwoods has entered into a multi-faceted strategic alliance with MGM MIRAGE (NYSE: MGM) to heighten the visibility of the project and create a distinct image separate from the existing resort. The resultant MGM Grand at Foxwoods will be a modern facility replete with an 824 room hotel tower, 21,000 square foot spa and bring the total number of meeting space square footage to 170,000. For meeting planners the project's biggest draw may very well be a 50,000 square foot ballroom, which will be the largest pillar free ballroom on the east coast.

"This partnership brings us an upscale, established brand in the convention and entertainment business and will catapult [Foxwoods] to another level," said Joan Esneault, Foxwoods' Executive Director of Sales in an interview with Hotel Interactive.

According to Esneault, the current facilities have proven to be too small for associations and until now the resort has traditionally booked small meetings. With one-quarter of the U.S. population in the northeast United States, and a central location between New York and Boston, Esneault said the market is ripe for this type of next generation project.

"For conventions, the MGM project will ensure we have everything under one roof," said Esneault, who noted the resort also added a golf course last year as it focuses more on capturing lucrative meetings.

And since the property will have a total of four hotels in different price points, she said it adds yet another benefit for meeting planners who want to provide their association members with choices.

Charles Reece, Foxwoods' VP of Hotel Operations said this project is really the opening salvo in a battle to gain meetings market share. "We've been limited before this project, now we won't have to keep group business strictly to weekdays."

Reece said Foxwoods currently utilizes between 17 to 20 percent of its rooms for convention and tours business at its three existing hotels. Accommodations total 1,416 guest rooms and suites, including the 824-room Grand Pequot Tower, 312-room Great Cedar Hotel, and the 280-room Two Trees Inn.

When the new property opens, Reece said he expects to dedicate up to 40 percent of the new rooms total of 2,240 to groups and tours, more than doubling the number utilized for meetings.

And the resort needs the added capacity too. Currently the existing hotels combined have about 95 percent occupancy and are sold out almost every weekend.

To help stir interest in Foxwoods 2.0, the resort recently hosted a special event where folks attending the annual meeting of the ASAE and The Center For Association Leadership in nearby Boston were shuttled to the casino via luxury coach bus for two days. They got to experience the property and get a sneak peek at expansion plans.

Meeting planners in attendance nearly universally applauded the effort and are looking at the property for future meetings.

"ASAE is a critical event. They plan their meetings at least two to three years out. The MGM expansion will open in 2008, which is very timely for this event and we wanted executives to see what we are building," said Esneault.

Bill Schwab, President and CEO of Construction Financial Management, said he puts on an annual event that attracts up to 1,200 people said he was impressed by the plans he saw for the new resort. "Foxwoods is enticing and we would consider it for a possible conference."

Last May, he held his group's annual conference at Caesars in Las Vegas and thinks a good casino venue helps him attract more people. He said his attendance can be 25 to 30 percent higher when he holds his events at a casino resort.

James Hollan III, President of the Severn Group also thought it was a savvy move for Foxwoods to have people come down to enjoy an experience. "This helps us understand the property and we only had to add a day to our trip to the ASAE conference. This was a brilliant move," said Hollan.