Charles F. Dodge Center, Pembroke, Fla., a $56 million brand new multi-use facility and civic center opened this spring.
The 175,000-sq.-ft., four story, venue has retractable seating and 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.
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.”
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, said Scott Clark, GM for SMG.
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.
“It gives us quite a range of things we can do,” Clark said. “It serves the community in a large variety of ways.”— Noelle Riley
↧
PEMBROKE PINES CENTER FILLS A NEED
↧