Starwood Hotels has been selected by the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority to manage a planned headquarters hotel here under the company's Sheraton brand.

The 500-room Sheraton San Juan Convention Center Hotel is to be located adjacent to the 580,000-square-foot Puerto Rico Convention Center, which is currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2005.

The hotel will include 63,000 square feet of meeting and banquet facilities, a 10,000-square foot spa, a selection of restaurants and several outdoor pools. With design elements of an urban resort, this development will also include 50,000-square feet of retail space, an eight-screen cinema complex, a 14,000-square foot casino and a 25,000-square foot multi-level nightclub/entertainment venue with a music hall for live performances.

“The Sheraton brand represents an international icon for service excellence and we are honored to have been selected to serve the City of San Juan to operate their Convention Center Hotel,” stated Norman MacLeod, executive vice president, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts.

“No other lodging company brings a level of operating experience for destination and convention hotels than Starwood. Sheraton has long been a leader in the convention market in major gateway cities throughout the world as evidenced by our selection here and by the City of Phoenix to operate a 1,000-room convention center hotel there. Our hotels and resorts all capitalize on Sheraton’s strength in the convention and international markets.”

The $415-million convention center is currently under construction on 113 acres on the peninsula of Isla Grande next to historic Old San Juan and is scheduled for completion in mid-2005.

Combined, the Sheraton hotel and Puerto Rico Convention Center will become the centerpiece of the Puerto Rico Convention District and will enable the island to better capitalize on the existing tourism appeal of the island by attracting groups with 2,500 to 4,500 conventioneers – and as many as 10,000 conventioneers for a city-wide event.

The project also allows for future plans to expand the convention center to 1.3-million square feet at a later time. Nonetheless, it is the largest mixed-use commercial real estate project in Puerto Rico.