With the completion of a privately financed, $40 million, 19-month long expansion, guests of The Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa can experience Crush Ultra Lounge with six luxury bowling lanes; an event piazza, perfect for weddings, dinners and receptions; Blend, an Italian-style café and 50,000 square feet of meeting and event space.

The Meritage Resort and Spa was built to provide guests with the complete Napa experience. The resort features North America’s first underground, full-service spa; full-service restaurant; a vineyard and underground tasting room. The expansion officially opens to guests today, May 16, 2012.

With the expansion, The Meritage has more than doubled the number of rooms it offers, held eight job fairs to hire 100 new staff/team members and remodeled its main lobby to accommodate the additional guests, making it one of Napa’s largest employers.

Expansion Highlights:

165 New Guestrooms and Suites: Each new guestroom includes an oversized bathroom, workspace, refrigerator and private patio or balcony overlooking The Meritage Event Piazza or the resorts nine acres of private vineyards and Napa’s Grape Crusher Statue. Three new suites full-size fridge and bar, plus fireplace and bedroom. The two-story, ~1,280 square-foot Bacchus Suite is perfect for small business meetings, receptions and watching the Big Game on one of its four flat panel televisions.

Crush Ultra Lounge: Napa’s newest premiere location for cocktails, sports entertainment, dining and bowling. This multi-level space also includes a pool table, shuffleboard, fireplace and both high-top and lounge seating. Crush Ultra Lounge is open daily and open to all guests and the general public.

Blend: In true Italian fashion, Blend Café offers gourmet coffees, espressos, café lattes and teas (hot and cold) as well as fresh pastries, baked goods and savory lunch items. Indoor and al fresco seating is available. Blend, open daily until 7 p.m., also offers a full selection of gelato, magazines and daily newspapers.

Carneros Ballroom: At 7,300 square-feet, the Carneros Ballroom is the second largest ballroom in the Napa Valley and the largest ballroom at more than 10,000 square-feet is also located at The Meritage. Beyond the new ballroom there is a state-of-the-art kitchen for catering, two covered outdoor terraces for events and two meeting rooms. The Meritage now offers a total of 50,000 square feet of indoor and covered outdoor meeting space.

Piazza: Ideal for outdoor weddings, dinners and receptions, the piazza also features a spa, croquet lawn and outdoor fireplace.

Fitness Studio: The 1,650 square-foot fitness studio features floor to ceiling Wieland doors that open onto a private balcony overlooking the resorts private vineyards, olive grove and the Grape Crusher State. The studio includes both state-of-the-art equipment and free-weights for use by all resort guests.

Beyond these new amenities the resort continues to offer upscale, Napa dining at its Siena restaurant, spa treatments and wine tasting in its underground Estate Cave at Spa Terra and Trinitas Cellars, a large pool with Vineyard Terrace Bar, bocce ball and nine acres of private vineyards.