What began as mere family entertainment for Kirk Feldmann as a child has transformed into a career influenced by those years of attending Broadway shows and of course, a true love and admiration for the performing arts. Now, Feldmann not only gets to attend these Broadway plays, but in essence, makes them possible by revamping rundown, unused movie theaters into successful performance arts facilitates. This ultimately has led to the revitalization and the preservation of various downtown areas in cities across the nation including downtown San Antonio’s with the rehabilitation of the Majestic Theatre.
Feldmann along with four others — David Anderson, Allen Becker, Barry Lewis, and Gary Markowitz — combined their years of experience in taking these dilapidated vintage movie theatres and turning them into revenue producing performing arts facilities, thus beginning the longstanding legacy known as Art Center Enterprises, Inc (ACE).
ACE is a theatrical facility management company with 29 years of experience in the field of professional performing arts facility management. Together, the five partners have succeeded in establishing a successful business model, which combines the adaptive re–use of historic movie palaces together with an entrepreneurial operations strategy, resulting in active, vibrant and self–sustaining performing arts facilities, where dilapidated old movie theatres once stood.
“ACE has tremendous venue management experience, we know how it needs to be built in order that it meets the expectations of all the users and runs well” says Feldmann. “Our team has the breadth and depth of knowledge on how to authentically restore theatres to their original grandeur and redesign them to include all of the technological advances.”
Not only has this business model served to uplift communities through the presentation of powerful live performances, but it has served to also provide economic stimulus into urban corridors in which time and urban decay have taken their toll on surrounding real estate. When you examine the impact of the Boston Opera House on Washington Street, the France–Merrick Performing Arts center on Eutaw Street in Baltimore, or the Majestic Theatre on Houston Street in San Antonio, you witness the success of true and lasting urban revitalization.
“People love these beautiful old theatres and often have very emotional, familial connections to them,” says Feldmann.
Now Executive Director of ACE, Feldmann prides his company’s ability to operate these theatres without any public subsidy for operations.
“We strike a balance between art and business,” says Feldmann of his company’s philosophy. “Our long–term and personal relationships in the live entertainment industry, are what separate us from performing arts facilities managed by municipalities and/or non–profits. We create revenues in ways that city governments and non–profits don’t.”
In fact, their ability to take advantage of their decades worth of relationships with the biggest talent agents, producers and promoters in the entertainment business keep ACE at the center stage of theatre booking. And, operating as an entrepreneurial company allows the group to actively pursue theatre activity and take calculated risks.
“We know the markets, can take advantage of opportunities as they develop, often with only a short window of lead–time, and can negotiate effectively,” Feldmann says. “We are willing to take the risks and the consequences as they come, and we have succeeded in this approach.”
In San Antonio specifically, ACE has proven themselves with an impressive track record that includes a very successful Broadway series, recently drawing over 65,000 patrons to The Phantom of the Opera, and the record breaking 2006 The Lion King production that drew 115,000 patrons to the Majestic and more than $22 million in economic impact for the city of San Antonio. The eagerly awaited Wicked, The Untold Story Of The Witches of Oz scheduled for 2009, promises to be an even bigger success.
“We have a reputation of being professional and dependable in our theatre operations,” says Feldmann of the company’s ability to book the biggest and best shows. “ACE’s resulting operations will not only create an economic stimulus for this venerable community by driving the retail, hospitality, restaurant, parking and public transportation sectors of the economy, but will provide the citizens, from the borough and the surrounding region, with cultural infrastructure which supports the civic life of that community and works to create the quality of life that both retains and attracts quality businesses and employers.”
