Jacob Building, Chilhowee Park, City of Knoxville, Tenn.
SMG has been running the big public gathering spaces for the City of Knoxville, Tenn., for the last eight months as interim managers while the city conducted a search for new management. It turns out the perfect partner was SMG all along. On June 21, by a unanimous vote, the City Council of Knoxville approved a facility management contract with SMG for the city’s largest facilities: Knoxville Convention Center, Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum, and Chilhowee Park and Exposition Center.
SMG had an in, they’ve been managing Knoxville Convention Center since it opened in 2002. After the city terminated three managers and another retired late last year, the city turned to SMG to take on temporary management services for the Civic Auditorium and Coliseum and Chilhowee Park and Exposition Center. They’ve been running all three venues since Nov. 1, 2015 while the city conducted a bidding process for a permanent private facility management provider.
“I think it’s a very positive move,” said Christie Branscom, deputy mayor of the City of Knoxville and also the city’s chief operating officer. “We have managed the facilities internally for many years but as it became more advanced, we realized greater skill sets were needed to operate these types of facilities. Our local staff did the best they could but we just determined it was time to bring in a professional management company with greater expertise in running these kinds of venues. We had really great success with SMG at the convention center. They are up on all the best practices, and this will put our facilities on a national platform.”
The deal calls for an initial five years, the city has a three option to renew, and then there are provisions for two more one-year extensions. There is an annual general base fee of $50,000 to go to SMG plus a $25,000 qualitative incentive and a $25,000 quantitative incentive for both Knoxville Convention Center and Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum, and a $12,000 base and $12,000 qualitative incentive for the Chilhowee Park and Exposition Center. The incentives are based on customer satisfaction surveys, maintenance, contract compliance, quality of bookings and marketing effectiveness.
The three venues combined have 65 full-time staff and 160 part-time workers. The annual operating budgets are: Knoxville Convention Center, $1.5 million; Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum, $1.1 million; and Chilhowee Park, $850,000. Having all the venues run by one entity will allow for synergy between the venues and will save the city $500,000 a year.
Savor, a division of SMG, has the food services contract at the Knoxville Convention Center while competitor Spectra has the rights to the Knoxville Coliseum and Auditorium. Spectra also has the “preferred food vendor” contract at Chilhowee Park and Exposition Center.
Mary Bogert was the temporary, and is now the permanent, manager of all three facilities for SMG. Bogert originally ran only the Knoxville Convention Center.
“I started as the food and beverage director for the Convention Center in 2001,” said Bogert who previously worked for the Hyatt Hotel Group in Knoxville. “I took over general manger duties in 2007. In late October the city came to us (SMG) and said that the city had just fired or retired the managers of the Civic Auditorium and Coliseum and Chilhowee Park and Exposition Center. They asked if we could help.”
SMG was happy to step in. An emergency order was brought before the city council, which called for SMG to be the temporary managers of the two facilities that were in bad shape and had no management. The measure passed and on Nov. 1, 2105, SMG took over. Bogert was promoted to general manager of all three facilities.
Mary Bogert
“It’s been a lot of fun,” said Bogert. “But there were challenges, too. The convention center was always run privately by SMG, but the Civic Auditorium and Chilhowee Park were run by the city so I had to learn all new systems. New payroll systems, new human resource procedures, it’s a very different type of process than what I was used to.”
The biggest challenge for Bogert was that she walked into an operation where everyone on the leadership team was gone. “I stepped into a busy situation and there was no one to show me how anything was done,” said Bogert. “I’m not complaining, I was starved for career growth and I’ve been handed a full-course meal.”
By all accounts, Bogert stepped up to the plate and thrived. Things have been going so well that when it came time to place a permanent management firm at the venues, SMG was the natural choice. “It was a little sticky being the temporary managers while the city went through the Request for Proposal (RFP) process,” said Bogert. “But we got through the RFP and I’m thrilled that the city has the confidence in SMG to hire us as their permanent management firm.”
“I have enjoyed a wonderful working experience with Mary,” said Branscom. “Although she’s an employee of SMG, which is a large company, she has her heart and soul in this community. I’ve found her to be professional, insightful and a pleasure to work with. She’s very well organized and she’s very well respected in the community and has done an outstanding job at the Convention Center for many, many years. This gives me great confidence in the new deal knowing Mary is at the helm.”
Interviewed for this story: Mary Bogert, (865) 251-6001; Christie Branscom, (865) 215-3384