🔒After pandemic-induced delays, developers of $25M Bristol hotel/conference center hope to create a CT ‘destination’

Despite two years of a pandemic that has forced the cancellation or postponement of many in-person gatherings, developers of a major new Bristol events center and hotel said they are optimistic about the future as their project gets ready to open next year.

The $25 million Bristol Event Center is expected to debut on Century Drive in the first quarter of 2023, after breaking ground in late 2020.

Dr. Gerald Niznick, a Las Vegas-based serial-entrepreneur who launched and is funding the project, envisions the facility as a “destination” for those who want to host conferences and weddings. The center will open roughly three years after COVID-19 first began shutting down parts of the economy, upending the leisure and hospitality industry in particular.

“I think we’re going to be very busy,” Niznick said in a recent interview. “There’s nothing like [what we are developing].”

Prestige Hospitality Group (PHG), of New York, will manage the property when it’s built. The company owns, develops and manages more than 30 hotels and hospitality properties across the country.

PHG CEO James C. Frenis said the project has made progress since it broke ground two years ago, but was delayed by supply chain issues that made some materials hard to find.

The project includes construction of a new 90-room HOME2 Suites by Hilton hotel and 30,000-square-foot conference/event center that will feature a:

9,400-square-foot main ballroom area

8,100-square-foot pre-function space

2,400-square-foot lecture space;

two 940-square-foot bridal or executive suites

and 8,200 square feet of outdoor gathering space.

The main ballroom, which will have the ability to be divided into two spaces, will have a 30-foot-high ceiling and dance floor. It will accommodate up to 750 people for conferences, sit-down dinners or weddings. Frenis said there will be a 25-foot LED screen on both sides of the ballroom that can be moved around depending on an event’s needs.

The ballroom’s acoustics will also be fine-tuned so that “if you’re sitting in the very first seat or the last seat, you’re going to be able to hear people speaking,” Frenis said.

“Everything in there will be state of the art,” he added.

The center will be able to host everything from company conferences to car and boat shows, Niznick said. He said he thinks the facility will become a “destination” location for people wanting to get out of the city for their weddings and events.

“We’ll be able to accommodate them with first-class facilities, first-class catering and technology,” said Niznick, a prosthodontist who became a pioneer in the dental implant field, having amassed a few dozen patents and founded and sold multiple companies. “I think of the saying ‘build it and they will come.’ I’m feeling very good about my decision to do this.”

Niznick had no significant ties to Connecticut but in the early 2000s he said he made a loan to an investor who purchased the former Bristol Clarion Hotel on Century Drive, which he eventually took over, renovated and rebranded as the DoubleTree by Hilton, after it fell into foreclosure in 2007.

In 2019, Niznick acquired three long-vacant parcels immediately west of the DoubleTree that will house part of the new development, which he said he’s self-financing without bank loans.

Frenis said he envisions the center’s customer base to be 60% social gatherings like weddings, galas and fundraisers, and 40% corporate and business events.

The four-story, 90-room HOME2 Suites will have an underground parking and walkway connecting the new hotel with the event center and existing DoubleTree hotel. The DoubleTree currently has a 5,100-square-foot ballroom space that can be divided into three rooms, so there will be several large event spaces on-site.

Niznick said he expects major construction to be finished by July, and he hopes to start taking bookings by January 2023.

In the meantime, PHG has been hiring key staff for the center.

Frenis announced earlier this year that Julia Miller had been appointed general manager of the Bristol Event Center. She was previously director of catering for the Connecticut Convention Center for 10 years.

Industry in flux

Robert Murdock is the president of the Connecticut Convention and Sports Bureau. The state-funded bureau works to find spaces for events, meetings and trade shows in the state.

Murdock said that throughout the last two years during COVID-19, different sectors of the events and meetings industry have been negatively impacted more than others. Sports has been the strongest sector, he said, mainly because many games and matches are held outside.

“We’ve been able to have sports using the safety protocols that the state and federal government have in place,” Murdock said.

Still, corporate events have struggled through the pandemic because many companies haven’t returned to in-office work, Murdock said. As a result, larger hotels in cities like Hartford have experienced prolonged near-record low occupancies.

“That corporate business really drives a lot, and the bigger hotels that relied on that are hurting more than the smaller, boutique hotels without meeting spaces,” Murdock said.

Murdock said the new event center in Bristol will fill a need in Greater Hartford, after several hotels in the area — including The Red Lion Hotel in Cromwell and Farmington Marriott — closed over the past few years.

“It’s always great to have more venues in the area. There is a need out there,” Murdock said.

The timing of the Bristol Event Center’s planned opening could be fortuitous. Many in the events industry predict a bounce back at the end of this year and early 2023, as long as new COVID variants don’t provide further setbacks.

“We’re bullish on 2023,” Frenis said. “People want to get out. There’s something about looking someone in the eye, shaking their hand, and doing business face-to-face.”

He said it’s a good sign that many events are being postponed rather than canceled as new COVID-19 variants come out. By 2023, Frenis said he’s confident demand will be there.

Murdock said the bureau has a positive outlook going forward this year and into 2023.

“People want to get back together,” Murdock said.