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| Photo by Preston Mack Photography |
After a decade of planning and two and a half years of construction, The Peabody Orlando today officially opened the doors to its $450 million expansion. The newly expanded hotel features a 32-story tower, 1,641 ultra-luxurious guestrooms, 300,000 total square feet of state-of-the-art, flexible function space, a 22,000-square-foot, full-service spa & fitness center, three landscaped pools and 10 dining and entertainment options including a new Napa Valley wine-themed restaurant and bar called Napa and a new 6,000-square-foot high-energy lounge called Rocks.
Originally built in 1986, The Peabody Orlando has become one of the largest Forbes Four-Star, AAA Four Diamond hotels in the eastern half of the United States and a landmark in the Orlando meetings and conventions market. The hotel’s newly expanded meeting space features a pillar-free 54,652-square-foot Peabody Grand Ballroom, a 75,000-square-foot Peabody Grand Rotunda designed for networking and registration, a 34,378-square-foot Windermere Ballroom, a 26,923-square-foot Plaza International Ballroom, two junior ballrooms, 99 breakout rooms, three green rooms and five boardrooms, all connected by two covered walkways to the Orange County Convention Center.
“For the last two years, we have watched the construction site turn into a functioning hotel. We’ve hired more than 400 new employees. This is not just an expansion, we’ve recreated ourselves – from the finishings in our ballrooms and the interior of our guestrooms, to the furnishing in our lobby and restaurants,” stated Alan Villaverde, president of Peabody Hotels Division and managing director of The Peabody Orlando.
In addition to the new meeting/function space, guestrooms feature the Peabody Dream Bed, high definition 42” LCD televisions, mini LCD TVs in the bathroom mirrors, complimentary in-room refrigerators, cordless telephones and Wi-Fi Internet access. The Peabody Orlando’s 891 existing guestrooms were also renovated with contemporary design and luxurious décor and furnishings, creating a seamless transition into the new tower.