Jacob K. Javits Center, New York. (Photo by Chris Cooper)
Centerplate has joined forces with Sonnier & Castle, a luxury purveyor of events and catering in New York City, to bring new business to New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The new marketing partnership, which is renewable after two years, was announced in early January as an effort to attract new events and audiences that Javits Center has previously been unsuccessful in capturing, such as film premieres, charity events, corporate entertaining and social events.
“We believe that this new partnership will open Javits’ doors to more audiences than ever before,” said Tony Sclafani, senior vice president and chief communications officer at Javits Center, which is also nearing the completion of a comprehensive renovation which includes the addition of a new green roof that helps absorb rainwater and insulate the building, the second-largest of its kind in the country. The building also saw the addition of a 110,000-sq.-ft. exhibition hall called Javits Center North. “With the transformation of Javits Center into a state-of-the-art building, it only makes sense that we seek to introduce more New Yorkers [and] more visitors to New York to our building.”
Sclafani explained that Javits Center hosts about 150 events each year and is hoping to add more to the calendar with the help of Sonnier & Castle. John Erickson, general manager and vice president for Centerplate at Javits Center, explained that Sonnier & Castle has a strong reputation in New York which will help position the center for new business. “We look at the New York City market as a very strong potential market for us and Javits Center to bring in some of the clients that Sonnier & Castle has been able to nurture … with the number of years of experience they have in that market,” Erickson explained. The center hosts many multiple-day events, however, Erickson noted, the new partnership with Sonnier & Castle will help the center bring in single-day events in the realm of social gatherings and philanthropy.
“The [Javits Center] calendar is pretty well established close to a year in advance,” said Sonnier & Castle partner David Castle. “The idea that came up was to involve a special events company, which operates outside of the world of conventions, to bring in special events business, and that’s where the idea was born.” Sonnier & Castle adds Javits Center to a list of other New York venues in which it operates, including the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library and The Frick.
“On the corporate side and the nonprofit side, there are large benefit dinners that would find such space attractive,” Castle said. “ These customers are within our normal line of business and I don’t believe that Centerplate, at least in this situation, has the mandate to go out and look for that kind of social business. That is what our mandate is. We’re not competing with Centerplate, we’re actually working in concert with Centerplate to bring in new types of customers in a different market.”
Castle added that Sonnier & Castle is hoping to bring in at least 10 new events to the center this year and a couple of potential customers have already done walk-throughs. “We see this first year as sort of a ramp up, and then in the following year it will be much more robust,” he said.
Interviewed for this story: David Castle, (212) 957-6481 x14; John Erickson, (212) 216-2404; Tony Selafini, (212) 216-2325