SMG has partnered with McConnell Valdés Consulting, an affiliate of Puerto Rico law firm McConnell Valdés LLC, to create SMV Advisors, a venue consulting and event promotion company designed to pursue new business opportunies on the island and beyond.
The new firm will provide entertainment management services, including overseeing operations, bookings, event promotions and food and beverage, to nontraditional and smaller venues in Latin America and the Caribbean .
McConnell Valdés LLC has served as SMG’s attorney in Puerto Rico since the late 90s.
For the last decade, SMG has managed the Coliséo de Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico Convention Center and Bahía Urbana, an urban park, as well as provided food and beverage service at the Antiguo Casino.
“Although SMG has been consulting with the Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile for the last five years, this new partnership is an atypical arrangement for us,” said Jochi Davila, regional vice president of SMG Latin America, who will also serve as director for SMG within SMV Advisors. “We saw an opportunity for a consultancy that can provide concert promotion services along with more limited or part-time management opportunities for facilities other than arenas and convention centers, like parks, public beaches and amphitheaters.”
SMV Advisors also will focus on second- and third-tier cities in its target region.
“There are a number of venues that could benefit from this consulting and booking service in Central and South America,” said Harry Cook, president of McConnell Valdés Consulting. “From their point of view, the arrangement is more cost efficient. For us, this allows our company to be more entrepreneurial and leverage our resources.”
SMV Advisors currently has three engagements. The firm will provide assistance with bookings and food and beverage for Cabo Rojo, a 30,000-square-foot multiuse facility opening this summer in southwest Puerto Rico. It also will provide consultancy services for a small arena in Manati, Puerto Rico that will be opening by early 2015, and consultancy and food and beverage services for a venue under construction in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Ideally, the new firm will focus on facilities looking for three- to five-year consultancy agreements. “Although we offer one-year consulting agreements, we’re seeking long-term relationships,” Davila said.
The Costa Rican venue consultancy deal is for five years. This will be a multi-use facility and 5,000-seat amphitheater with close to 150,000-sq.-ft. of exhibition space. The owner is La Nación, a Costa Rican newspaper company based in San Jose. Architects for the project are Vida Landscape Architects & Planners, located in San Jose, Puerto Rico and Garnier Arquitectos S.A., out of Santa Ana, Costa Rica.
SMV Advisors also will have the capability to serve as a management company for the venues it works with. The company expects to have a staff of eight by the end of the summer. Davila and Cook will manage the day-to-day operations.
“McConnell Valdés has engineers and staff to help with physical plans without having to hire a director of operations,” Davila said. “This better fits our business model than having to utilize SMG’s resources to manage these facilities.”
Interviewed for this article: Harry Cook, (787) 759-9292; Jochi Davila, (787) 340-6292