Turf Catering gets new convention center contract

A minimum capital investment of $ 150,000 will allow Turf Catering, which has the exclusive food service rights for the Hot Springs Convention Center and Summit Arena, to increase its efficiency and take care of larger events.

“We’re going to upsize all that equipment ( in the kitchen),” Brad Wolken, with Turf Catering, said Monday after the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission approved a new fiveyear contract.

“We weren’t involved in some of the design phase and some of it didn’t work out to be quite as practical for the things we do,” Wolken told the commissioners.

“This will be fine tuned to really get things out and do the kind of functions ... like we did lunch for 1,500 today. When we took over, the building was under construction and I don’t think anyone envisioned events that big. They thought more like dinners for 300 to 500. So we’re going to upsize.”

Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, said the convention center “has had an excellent relationship with Turf Catering” since the original contract was signed May 11, 1998.

That contract was amended on April 14, 2000, when the convention center was expanded, and again on Nov. 1, 2006, to extend the working arrangement through Dec. 31, 2013.

“The second extension of the contract included a $ 100,000 capital investment by Turf Catering into our food and beverage operation. This is the contract that we are currently operating under,” Arrison said.

Under the new contract, Turf Catering will provide food and beverage service to the convention center and Summit Arena for the period May 1, 2012, through April 25, 2017.

Arrison said he was requesting early renewal of the contract for the following reasons:

• Turf Catering has agreed to make a minimum capital investment of $ 150,000 in food service equipment, small wares, and china into the convention center kitchen and operation. Those items will become the property of the convention center after they are fully depreciated or bought back under the contract terms.

• Turf Catering has done an excellent job of taking care of the client’s food and beverage needs.

“They’ve done an outstanding job for us,” Arrison said. “I think they set the standard, not only in Arkansas, but I’d put them up against anyone nationally. It’s incredible what they do.”

• The new agreement makes it a primary provision that the current management of Turf Catering must stay in place during the terms of the agreement, and that the commission has the right to approve any change or sale.

“We’re not interested in dealing with Turf Catering unless Brad is in charge, and this new contract gives us a little more power than our original contract and extensions,” Arrison said.

The contract’s buy- back clause also retains the schedule for previous investment and adds a schedule for new investment; makes Turf Catering responsible for maintenance and repair of new capital investment items not permanently installed, increases the threshold from $ 300 to $ 1,000 for an independent single event to be commissionable; and sets the national account pricing as the pricing comparable for exclusive suppliers that Turf Catering is required to use.

Arrison said Turf Catering paid the convention center almost $ 485,000 in commissions last year and more than $ 123,500 through the first three months this year.

“This year we are already 8 percent ahead of last year.”

Recalling some history of the convention center, Arrison said, “When it was first expanded, which was before my time, nobody wanted it ( the food and beverage contract), and I think somebody twisted Turf Catering’s arm to take it from us. Thankfully, they did.

“When Gordon ( Mahoney, chief operating officer for Visit Hot Springs) and I got here about 14 years ago, it was a great and very pleasant surprise that someone else was doing it and they did a very good job.”

Commissioner Charlie Moore questioned whether the commission’s attorney had reviewed the contract, to which attorney Scott Hickam said, “I’ve reviewed it until I’m tired of reading it.

“I’ve reviewed it thoroughly, and the two or three times it was changed with amendments, and then got the new amendment, trying to fit the four together didn’t work well.

“So I asked if I could just make a new contract so we wouldn’t have to look at four. This is one contract, and everything is here and it looks fine to me,” he said.

Commissioner David Longinotti asked Wolken how the capital investment would be used.

“We won’t buy anything without approval. We’re going to be replacing some of the bigger pieces of equipment in the kitchen. Some of the big ovens and stoves were put in here under the first bond issue.

“This time we’re not only going to get some new dishes and things we’d normally buy, but we’re going to put some things in so that the commission has more of its funds available for advertising and thing you do.”