The summer of 2023 will herald a new era of meetings in South Lake Tahoe with the arrival of the over $100-million Tahoe South Events Center. The site of the events center, currently under construction at Stateline, Nevada, is conveniently located near major hotels and casinos including Harveys Lake Tahoe, Harrah’s Lake Tahoe and others. The events center’s projected date of completion is July 6, 2023.
Once complete, the events center will offer meeting profs access to a 27,000 sq. ft. main event floor and 10,000 sq. ft. of versatile outdoor space, which can be used for any kind of outdoor event including banquets and cocktail receptions, says Project General Manager Kevin Buryczki of OVG360. “However you want it set up—we can set it,” he says.
The new events center will also include eight meeting rooms, consisting of an additional 15,000 sq. ft. and will include five meeting rooms and three smaller breakout rooms for board meetings and smaller groups.
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Versatility on Every Level
The 27,000-square-foot main event floor will feature a half-house curtain that will allow planners the flexibility to break up the massive space into any configuration they require using a grid along the entire floor “so it doesn’t have to be strictly a half-house…if the general session area needs to be a little smaller than the main exhibit, we can move it and customize however you need,” Buryczyki says.
And that versatility is also applied to the additional breakout meeting spaces. Of the five main meeting rooms, two are separated by permanent walls, with the option to separate the middle three using airwalls or utilize the space as one large meeting room.
Large concourses wrap around the event-level floor which can be used as registration areas or additional exhibit booths.
The main entrance leads directly to main arena floor, “but depending on how planners want to set up their program will depend on how the attendees will enter,” Gary Wilmes, director of operations at Tahoe South Events Center says. Attendees can enter at the main entrance, which can be formatted as a registration area and welcome area, he continues.
Moving away from the entrance through the concourse-west spanning the length of the center, are the fixtures of two fireplaces, which will provide a cozy meeting area for people to gather in small groups.
Planners will also have the option to use an alternate entrance located near the meeting rooms that will serve conventions and VIPs, allowing attendees to go straight to the breakout or meeting rooms for added convenience.
All-in Luxury Amenities
The events center will quarter two kitchens, fully staffed by a dedicated food and beverage service, giving planners the peace of mind needed to focus on their objectives, while providing attendees with a memorable experience.
“We will have an executive chef and an executive food and beverage team on site so all the food and beverage for the facility will be done in-house by our executive chef,” Wilmes says.
And what makes this amenity at the events center unique is that planners can book the venue, along with food and beverage services through the venue’s sales manager, creating a streamlined process, eliminating the need for planners to book a third-party catering service.
Sustainability Shaped by the Local Community
Designed by Chicago-based Perkins & Will, the Tahoe South Events Center will adhere to the local lodge-style aesthetic with a stone and wood façade, and an angular roof reminiscent of a cabin. Entry pylons, inspired by the structure’s roof, featuring soft downlit reflecting panes, will illuminate the grand walkway leading up to the tower entryway.
Preparing the site for the construction of the event center required thoughtful and careful planning on the part of the developers as the location cut into the side of the hill, displacing large amounts of earth and large boulders that required explosive demolition to remove.
“There’s a lot that went into getting the site ready that we’re still doing,” Wilmes says. “We were thankful and lucky enough that some of the dirt was donated over to Edgewood, for the golf course so instead of us having to take dirt all the way down to the valley, we only had to take it right across the street, so that helped out a little bit as well,” Buryczki added.
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