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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSCACMinutes_2009_06_02Swiftel Center Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Tuesday June 2, 2009 @ 4:00pm Mezzanine Conference Room Present: Rod Schaefer, Teri Ronning; Tom Coughlin; Rob Peterson; Barb Telkamp; Jeff Weldon, City of Brookings Manager; Tom Richter, Swiftel Center Executive Director; Scott Smith, Swiftel Center Director of Operations; Jenny Hammrich, Swiftel Center Director of Sales/Marketing. Agenda Discussions:  Rod called the meeting to order and welcomed Jeff to the meeting. Rob motioned to approve the minutes from April 7, 2009. Teri seconded. The motion passed.  Re-appoint Vice Chairperson due to Matthew Nelson moved away and therefore resigned from the board. Matthew’s position was the county position and has not been re-appointed. Rod motioned for Rob Peterson to be the Vice Chairperson. Tom Coughlin seconded. The motion passed.  March and April financials were presented. The format has been updated to include the end of the year forecasting which will change each month. In the month of April, we would be showing a profit but we are not due to the lawsuit check being written out of the operating account. We will address it with the City Council at a later date.  Jenny presented the 1st quarter events, event days, & attendance. Tom presented the Economic Impact. The Brookings Convention & Visitors Bureau has updated the visitor spending amouts to be $60 average daily spending and $80 overnight stays. The overnight daily average is at 2% which is conservative number but that should go up if and when the expansion happens. Andrea will email everyone a copy of the Economic Impact with the new numbers.  Tom gave an update on the building expansion. Jeff is asking the council to give approval for architectural schematic drawings and cost estimates and he feels we should move forward. All of this will be discussed at the June 23rd work session at 5:00pm. Jeff elaborated on the expansion – he has renewed the effort to move this project forward. The council has it as a goal this year to make a decision. It is important to condense it into 4 points to sell it to the community & council. 1) Capture the market share we don’t currently have. 2) Economic Impact – the models are there and apply them to the projections. 3) Visitors Niche – 3rd penny sales tax is used by the city council & promotions committee. Public event facilities (Larson Ice, SDSU, Swiftel Center) are the largest generators of this tax. 4) Why not expand – make the facility more versatile and capitalize on it. Some of the modifications with the expansion are office and storage needs, kitchen, ballroom, remodel existing meeting rooms into 6 rooms and utilizing the county resource space. Also, adding a hotel, Brookings needs more hotel space. The project needs the hotel to go anywhere. The councilors understand the conflicts with events and office space needs. Another positive is the current financing for the Swiftel Center will end in 2013 and the expansion financing could start right away after the first one is retired. The Swiftel Center receives about $316,000 from the City right now. That amount will go up with the expansion but could go up even more without the expansion. This will help the private sector be successful. This is an investment to make things happen in the community and it was not designed to make money. There are many projects that the City is looking at right now – adding a lazy river to the aquatic center, humane society facility, drainage, railroad, hospital, etc. But we need to take a reasonable amount of risk it’s the right thing to do. Tom asked everyone to be out selling the project. We need to be contacting key leaders to support the project and be present at the meeting on the 23rd. Barb mentioned that we also need the ordinary patron a taxpaying person to also be at the meeting. Also need the potential customers to be there. It is important for everyone to attend the meeting June 23rd at 5:00.  Jenny presented the board with a copy of the events for June and July 2009. Some events include horse shows, wedding receptions, Grand Nationals wrestling, Uncle Sam Jam, and the Staind concert.  Scott reported on building upgrades. We are still working on the arena lighting. He is also working on the 2010 budget, summer maintenance and IT upgrades.  Tom reported that Robert resigned and we are conducting interviews. The arena side of booking events is looking very good. We will send a reminder to everyone about the June 23rd meeting.  Rod adjourned the meeting. Next meeting is scheduled for July 30, 2009 at 4:00pm.