Charles F. Dodge Center, Pembroke Pines, Fla., opened April 19.
A newly built, four story, multiuse facility and civic center in Pembroke Pines, Fla., opened two months ago, bringing a much needed — and wanted — venue to the city that houses 164,000 people.
The $56 million Charles F. Dodge Center unveiled itself to the community April 19, and has since hosted shows, including Queen, DRUMLine Live! and performances by Kool & The Gang.
“We are very excited,” said Steve Clark, general manager there for SMG. “We have three major shows under our belt, so we’re still tweaking everything.”
The 175,000-sq.-ft. venue has retractable seating, a great hall that can accommodate 3,200 guests in a “theater style” setting.
The seating also can fit 2,400 for concerts, go down to 1,300 for classroom-style seating and can even be configured into 1,120-capacity for banquet-style seating.
The center is managed by SMG, adding to the facility management company’s long list of venues it manages in Florida.
“Leveraging their long-standing success and market knowledge at the Broward County Greater Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center, SMG has teamed with the Broward Center for the Performing Arts – recognized nationally for its leadership in arts and entertainment as well as its innovative approaches to community engagement,” stated the press release.
Economic development continues to boom in Pembroke Pines, especially in downtown where a 127-room Fairfield Inn by Marriott opened in 2015. A new 40,000 sq.-ft. movie theater is also gracing the city.
Adding a new civic center and arts center, especially now, with the great economic climate, made sense. “It’s our beautiful downtown civic center that we’ve been looking at for 15 years,” said Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis.
The center was named after the current city manager, Charles F. Dodge, who worked diligently to bring the venue to life, he said.
“I nominated him because he did so much work getting it built,” Ortis said. “It’s been a long-time coming for this particular center to come to fruition.”
“Pembroke Pines is one of those cities that really took off after Hurricane Andrew,” Clark said. “This (venue) was a piece of the puzzle the city felt was missing.”
Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992 as a category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. After the city started rebuilding, it thrived — until the recession hit.
City officials held off building the venue due to the recession, but they reassessed as the economy recovered, Clark said.
Soon enough, the multiplex funded by taxpayer dollars broke ground.
Now, the venue hosts a variety of entertainment, including concerts, comedy festivals and trade shows. It also has an 11,000-sq.-ft. art gallery and 5,000 sq.-ft. of meeting space.
“The city named the art gallery after me,” Ortis said. “I’m very, very honored.”
The 4,000-sq.-ft. kitchen makes it possible for the venue to accommodate anything from small meetings to weddings to large banquets, Clark said.
It also has a new state-of-the-art sound system, and officials currently are installing a top-notch wireless system that guests can use at ease, he added.
The center serves the western suburbs, and the mayor is excited about the new structure and the tax revenue it’s sure to generate.
City offices occupy two stories in the building, which includes offices for city staff, council members, the mayor and other city departments.
“It gives us quite a range of things we can do,” Clark said. “It serves the community in a large variety of ways.”
