If there’s one thing New York City has never offered, it’s boredom. From people watching to taking in the Broadway shows, museums, restaurants and nightclubs, the “City that Never Sleeps” has always had unique experiences on tap.

But New York is not content to ride on its reputation. Instead, several areas of the city are creating new reasons to come to town while some venues and attractions are giving visitors pause.

A convention center expansion and a planned mixed-use development promise to give Midtown’s West Side a rebirth while just a bit south, a new restaurant and hotel, one of numerous new properties that have opened, is creating a great deal of buzz.

Across the city’s five boroughs, at least 25 hotel projects are slated for this year, with 28 more debuting through 2014. As of April, the city featured 90,400 rooms, and in the next eight months another 2,000 rooms will open.

In Lower Manhattan, the new World Trade Center, the 9/11 Memorial and a luxury hotel are prompting a resurgence, plus in nearby Brooklyn there’s been an influx of residents and an explosion of retail and dining, prompting the creation of numerous meeting venues and attractions.

“New York City’s five boroughs offer meeting planners a diversity of experiences—creative meeting venues, stylish hotels and world-class attractions and museums,” boasts Fred Dixon, senior vice president of convention and tourism development at NYC & Company. “The city almost guarantees record-breaking attendance for meetings.”

Midtown Manhattan
The Jacob Javits Center in Midtown West is finishing a renovation that started with an 80,000-square-foot expansion in 2010. The facility features more than 1.8 million square feet of meeting and exhibition space.

Small changes to keep the building’s operations running smoothly—including replacing the roof and making the facility more energy-efficient—are 70 percent complete, according to Barbara Lampen, president of the New York Convention Center Development Corporation. Final upgrades will come in 2013.

And there soon will be reasons to hang around the area surrounding Javits. Construction is set to begin later this year on a proposed complex that will include a hotel, spa, dining, retail, residential units and entertainment. The project is scheduled to open in phases beginning in 2015.

On the East Side’s Madison Avenue, the 1,015-room Roosevelt Hotel completed a multimillion-dollar renovation last year. The project included enhancements to all guest rooms and upgrades to the lobby-level Madison Club Lounge. The hotel features 30,000 square feet of meeting space and is particularly known for its rooftop lounge, mad46.

NoMad
Back in 2001, a restoration of Madison Square Park—which is in Midtown, spanning both the East Side and West Side of Manhattan—gave new life to the area called “NoMad”, or north of Madison Square Park. It prompted the opening of stores, trendy restaurants and nightspots.One of its stylish newcomers, The NoMad Hotel, is drawing even more attention to the area.

Located in a turn-of-the-20th-century Beaux Arts building, the property includes several eateries—spearheaded by a Michelin-star-pedigreed chef and restaurateur duo—and a bar simply called “The Bar” that features several lounge areas.

The 168-room NoMad Hotel provides 4,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space.