Hilton offers meeting space on city’s east side

by Vicki K. Brown

May 2,2008

Ray Puri, of the Puri Group, in the finished conference room in the Hilton Garden Inn.

Mid-Missouri corporations soon will have another venue for training, seminars and parties.

The Garden Conference Center adjacent to the Hilton Garden Inn at Centerstate Crossing is expected to open next week and provide 10,000 square feet of meeting space. The 16,000-square-foot facility has 6,000 square feet of kitchen and catering space as well as audio-visual systems for presentations. The Hilton offers an additional 3,800 square feet of meeting space.

The Puri Group of Enterprises, which opened the hotel about 18 months ago, had always planned to include a conference center at the site.

"We already had it in mind," Ray Puri said about the center, which cost about $4.8 million to build. "Our objective was to have conference space next to the hotel. We wanted the two facilities to complement each other."

The Puri Group planned for 151 rooms in the hotel, anticipating the additional clients a conference center might attract—given what planners perceived as a dearth of "upper-end" meeting space.

"Besides the Holiday Inn Executive [Center], there was nothing new, especially on the east end," Puri said.

The Puri Group plans to offer catering by a highly skilled staff and full-service lodging for medium and small groups, Puri said.
"I'm sure it's going to be an outstanding facility," said Lorah Steiner, director for the Columbia Convention and Visitor's Bureau. "It has an outstanding design, especially the interior."

The multi-use building will accommodate up to 800 people in its open ballroom. The large space also can be divided into five smaller rooms for conference breakout sessions or small seminars.
"It will be a very flexible, upscale conference space with a kitchen and room for catering staff," Puri said.

Although designed for corporate use, the facility also will be available for private affairs, such as parties and weddings.