Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. (Photo by Tom Conner)
Pinnacle Venue Services entered into a management contract with Indiana University of Pennsylvania for the on-campus Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex (KCAC). The deal became effective on March 1 and is for five years with an option for 10 years.
“We feel very fortunate to land the business,” said Doug Higgons, one of the principals of Pinnacle. “I believe that one of the reasons that Indiana University chose us is that we have a vision for the long-term business model for the facility.”
That model includes ramping up the conference and convention side of the business while maintaining the successful athletics and concert history at the five-year-old venue, which includes the 5,000-seat Ed Fry Arena.
“Our anchor tenants are IUP athletics and then obviously IUP university events,” Higgons said. “We are coming in and looking to book as many events around those as possible. Also inside the facility is the 632-seat Toretti Auditiorium which has really never been looked at for booking opportunities. We will be aggressive on that end as well.”
The university is likewise excited about the prospects of working with its new partner.
“We are very excited to have Pinnacle Venue Services as the management company to oversee operation of the complex,” said Sam Phillips, IUP’s assistant vice president for administration. “They bring outstanding experience in booking events and operating facilities. We’re looking forward to new and exciting event booking opportunities that they will bring to the complex.”
Pinnacle appointed Andrew Thompson as the new general manager of the KCAC. The 14-year veteran of the Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers, Fl. begins his new duties on March 24.
“We were really looking for somebody with a bit more conference and convention center background,” Higgons said. “The Kovalchick Complex is an arena and a conference center. We think the upside is there. Andrew knows the arena world very well and we’re excited to get going.”
“We are going to activate the conference and convention side of business,” Thompson said. “This building has a strong athletics and concert history but the conference and convention side has kind of taken a hit. I am going to build the business side, highlight IUP and make the complex a premier destination to bring in a lot of regional types of events.”
Pinnacle was founded in November 2014 and in addition to Higgons also counts among its principals industry veterans Tom Paquette, Frank Roach and Michael Jones.
“Tom and I started the company,” Higgons said. “We weren’t going to be strictly a consulting company and we weren’t going to be strictly a management company. We are going to kind of be a little bit of everything. We’ve been successful to date with 10 clients of different size and scope and levels of service.”
The company’s first management contract was last fall to oversee the historic Seminole Theatre in Homestead, Fl. The venue opened on November 26, 1921 primarily as a cinema showing popular silent movies and is now a hotspot in South Dade County and the upper Keys.
Just as that venue made sense for Pinnacle, Higgons said that Indiana University was also a perfect fit for the company.“It is in a small-market tertiary territory,” he said. “They will benefit from the hands-on, customized and dedicated approach we will provide. They are going to be dealing with the ownership of the company and they’re going to get constant attention from us. For a facility like that, that’s what’s important. That’s what’s going to help make it successful. They are a big fish in our small pond.
“When we went to make our sales pitch to the university and described to them our vision for our general manager they became excited. We know that Andrew can take the Kovalchick Complex to the next level.”
Thompson agreed about the personal touch that Pinnacle will bring to the venue.
“I think a young company brings a lot of benefits into a place like IUP,” he said. “We can focus on every client, really, being our biggest and best client. It’s not so much a big corporate environment. We are going to give the university a lot of outside the box thinking and a lot of customization that is specifically tailored to them.”
That is also the expectation from Phillips and the university’s administration.
“We welcome the personalized attention,” he said. “We expect for the existing good performance of the facility to be improved by Pinnacle and the management efforts that they tailor to our facility.”
Higgons said that Ararmark will provide food and beverage through an existing contract in place while ticketing is a holdover from previous manager Spectra and its Paciolan platform. Higgons added that Pinnacle is in the process of bidding out for ticketing and did not rule out Spectra or any other organization.
For now, the emphasis is on the FLO Nationals 2016 event on March 24 under the auspices of Pinnacle, a high school national wrestling championship that brings in nationally ranked wrestlers to the venue.
“We’re ready to grow the business at this complex,” Higgons said. “The upside is incredible.”
Interviewed for this story: Doug Higgons, (757) 323-9380; Sam Phillips, (724) 357-4597; Andrew Thompson, (724) 357-5200