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Officials to visit Michigan arena
YOUNGSTOWN
With city officials considering the Covelli Centre’s management firm taking over the facility’s food-and-beverage operations, council president and two councilmen will travel Monday to Grand Rapids, Mich., to see how a similar operation works at that city’s Van Andel Arena.
The three — council President Charles Sammarone, and Councilmen DeMaine Kitchen, D-2nd, and Jamael Tito Brown, D-3rd — will drive to Grand Rapids to meet with Rick MacKeigan, Van Andel’s general manager.
Van Andel is managed by SMG, a Philadelphia-based company that also serves as the Youngstown-owned Covelli Centre’s management consultant.
About three years ago, Van Andel worked out a deal to take over its food-and-beverage operations from Centerplate, said Hank Abate, SMG’s senior vice president of arenas and stadiums, who helped facilitate Monday’s visit to Grand Rapids and recommended that particular location to Youngstown officials.
Youngstown is considering a similar move at Covelli to replace Centerplate with JAC Management, the firm that runs the center’s day-to-day operations in a partnership with SMG.
“It’s done in-house in Grand Rapids, so we’ll find out how it was before and how the change was made,” Sammarone said.
Brown said he wants to learn how the change impacted the “financial benefits to the city and the patrons who go there. It’s one thing to hear it and another to see it.”
Kitchen said the visit is “an exploratory trip to make sure we’d be making the right decision” to have JAC Management take over food-and-beverage operations from Centerplate.
If council has any questions about a change in food-and-beverage operations, Abate said he’ll set up a meeting with members to discuss those issues at their convenience. That could be as early as next week, he added.
Youngstown received $194,563 last year from the sale of food and drinks at the center.
Eric Ryan, head of JAC Management and the center’s executive director, said his company could increase that amount by at least $100,000 annually by better cost controls and offering food and drinks at all events.
Earlier this year, Centerplate had agreed to no longer be at the center if it was replaced by JAC Management. When council members suggested that perhaps it should look at all its options, including another outside company, Centerplate nixed the offer.
But a Centerplate official told The Vindicator last month that the company is willing to reconsider if JAC Management takes over.
Under the proposal, the city would pay Centerplate about $450,000, which is the balance of the $1.2 million the company spent for equipment and materials when the center opened in October 2005.
The payment would replace the $9,026 per month the city now pays toward the $1.2 million. The city could borrow the $450,000 it owes Centerplate from a lending institution and repay that loan on a monthly basis.
Centerplate’s 10-year contract with the city expires in September 2015. The city would keep all the equipment and materials after that deal expires.