Fort Smith Board takes no action on convention center catering plan

OVG, the company managing the Fort Smith Convention Center for the city of Fort Smith, will not be able to cater to off-site events. The Fort Smith Board of Directors on Tuesday (Sept. 16) declined to consider an ordinance amending OVG’s contract to expand its catering reach.

Officials with Denver-based OVG were asking to be able to provide off-site catering using the convention center kitchen. OVG is allowed to cater to off-site venues but only if it is to support a client also using the convention center.

One of the first things OVG did when it took over management of the convention center was to make a $500,000 investment in the center. OVG agreed to invest up to $500,000 to put a full-service commercial kitchen in the convention center. OVG will recoup that expense through $50,000 annual installment payments for 10 years that would come from the facility’s operating fund.

Prior to board consideration of the OVG ordinance, Kim Fodge and Joey McCutchen spoke against it, with Fodge saying the ordinance would create an unfair advantage for the convention center over local businesses that cater.

“I do not believe the city should be competing with local businesses and business owners who are the backbone of this community,” Fodge said, adding that if OVG is allowed to do offsite catering, local businesses should be able to cater to convention center events.

When a motion was called Tuesday for the ordinance, no motion was made.

Shannon Davis, general manager of the Fort Smith Convention Center, told Talk Business & Politics after the board declined to consider the catering amendment that they aren’t competing with area restaurants and catering companies with large events.

“There are a lot of companies here that do catering, but they cannot do it in the amount that we can do it,” Davis said. “We can cater up to 1,500 just in our facility. We don’t have caterers in the city of Fort Smith who can cater large numbers like that. Once you get over 300 people for an event, these area restaurants can’t do it, so the (business) is going to come from an outside caterer from Little Rock, or Northwest Arkansas. It’s not going to be a local business. So the local businesses aren’t going to get that money anyway.”

She said the board action prevents the convention center from generating revenue that would result in budget savings for the city, adding that they have at least $100,000 in catering business they could book if not for the catering restriction.

“These amendments are brought forward for the Board’s consideration as measures that will enhance ongoing services at the facility and improve the facility’s operating revenues, which will reduce the facility’s dependence on the city’s General Fund to sustain operations,” Acting City Administrator Jeff Dingman noted in a memo to the board.

Shannon said OVG may again seek an ordinance to expand off-site catering, adding that they may be open to only allowing OVG to cater off-site for a certain large number of people.

In a recent board meeting, Director Christina Catsavis suggested the board “be open” to some arrangement that allows OVG to cater because it could benefit organizations and companies that have large events.