After opening restaurants in New York, London, Hong Kong and 50 other cities worldwide, Planet Hollywood is planning a location in Fort Lauderdale.

The 275-seat, 11,600-square-foot eatery will be in the new Northport Market Place on the 17th Street Causeway. It is expected to hire a staff of 230 and begin serving later this summer. Publicists wouldn’t give an estimated start-up cost or opening date.

Planet Hollywood is scheduled to open other locations this summer in Key West, on Saturday; Indianapolis; Houston; Gurnee Mills, Ill.; and Edmonton, Alberta.

The Orlando-based company opened its first restaurant in New York in 1991. Decor includes film and television memorabilia and the food is California-style. Planet Hollywood’s five major shareholders are movie stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

‘Marketing to the New Majority’

Fort Lauderdale will be the site of a four-day educational conference starting July 24 on how to market tourism destinations to African-Americans and other minorities.

The conference, with the theme “Marketing to the New Majority,” will feature speeches by Rep. Alcee L. Hastings; Donahue Peebles, a black Washington developer who plans to build a hotel next to the Broward County Convention Center; and H.T. Smith, a Miami lawyer who organized a 1990 black tourism boycott of Dade County for snubbing South African President Nelson Mandela.

This year, several black groups visited Broward County, including 2,000 delegates in early April for a regional meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Himmarshee restaurant planned for Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale restaurateurs Tim Petrillo and Peter Boulukos are planning to introduce a new downtown eatery in the latter half of July.

Himmarshee Bar & Grille will have 80 dining seats and another 40 seats in two bars. The upstairs bar will feature an outdoor balcony, said Boulukos, executive chef at Mark’s Las Olas. Petrillo runs both Mark’s Las Olas and Mark’s Place in North Miami.

Cuisine will be similar to that at Mark’s Las Olas, but Himmarshee will be more casual and affordable, with dinner entrees ranging from $10 to $17.

The restaurant will be in a building now under construction on Second Street, two blocks east of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. It’s named after Himmarshee Village, a merchants association in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Delta Express deals

For less than the cost of a day pass to Disney World, you can fly on Delta Express from West Palm Beach to Orlando.

The low-fare unit of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is offering even lower fares on the 128 daily non-stop flights it offers between 15 cities, including West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Sample prices are $19, West Palm Beach to Orlando; $79, Fort Lauderdale to Louisville, Ky.; and $99, Fort Lauderdale to Philadelphia.

Tickets must be bought at least seven days in advance and no later than June 24. They are valid for travel through Sept. 7.