City continues to benefit from new management of Covelli food service

YOUNGSTOWN

By having the Covelli Centre’s management company handle the building’s food-and-beverage services, the amount of additional money going to the city remained steady.

The city received $251,567 in profit from food-and-beverage sales for the first six months of the year that is used, in part, to fund the center’s operations.

But of that amount, the city wouldn’t have received $89,078 under a contract it had with Centerplate, the center’s previous food-and-beverage vendor. That $89,078 goes directly to the city’s general-fund budget.

JAC Management Group, the firm that manages the center, took over the food-and-beverage service in April 2012, and reworked the payment formula for the city.

Under the Centerplate deal, which took effect in October 2005 when the center opened, that company gave the city a flat commission based on gross sales and kept the rest for expenses and profit.

The JAC deal gives the city that same commission. But it also gives the rest of the money — minus the company’s expenses and a 3 percent profit — for food-and-beverage sales to Youngstown.

“That we’re able to take [almost] $100,000 a year [more] out of the facility is wonderful,” said Kyle Miasek, the city’s deputy finance director. “I’m grateful the building is generating that additional money. It helps to reduce the debt the city owes on the building.”

Read more about the deal and the status of the city's debt on the facility in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.