Centerplate Integrates Units Into Comprehensive Hospitality Solutions Group

Centerplate has announced the integration of its practice teams handling facility design and construction, capital project planning, equipment procurement and strategic consulting into a single, comprehensive Hospitality Solutions Group. The new department aligns several disciplines, including strategic consulting, capital planning, architecture and interior design, equipment procurement and construction.

Centerplate has expanded significantly in this area in recent years, taking on larger capital projects in collaboration with its clients, ranging from major renovations to new building openings, including Nashville's Music City Center, Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., and consulting on the new Atletico de Madrid stadium in Spain.

"This is an exciting time for Centerplate, and for event hospitality, which is increasingly becoming a key component of the brand for a team or venue," says President/CEO Chris Verros. "We were the first in the industry to have an in-house design firm, and this move is a natural next step in integrating the growing discipline and practice areas into our overall strategy to make hospitality design a central part of our core offerings and promise of making it better to be there at live gatherings."

Eric Wooden will head the division in the newly-created position of senior vice president, Hospitality Solutions. Wooden has been with Centerplate since 1989 and has more than 25 years of experience managing hospitality operations, facility design and capital projects for the company.

Centerplate has also hired former RevEquip COO Dennis Martinez as facility design director. He has more than 20 years of experience in foodservice design and consulting, with international experience in design ranging from hotel projects in Mecca for Jabal Omar Development and restaurant design for Fifth Dining at Saks Fifth Avenue, to concepts for San Francisco's AT&T Park.

"I am honored to lead this team of talented and passionate professionals," Wooden says. "Centerplate's success in hospitality project management has helped to establish us as a leader in 21st century event hospitality and I look forward to better connecting event destinations with their guests and enhancing their brands and business."