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Tronco’s Special Events Catering will leave the State Fairgrounds to operate a new conference center on Garners Ferry Road near I-77.
Tronco’s president David Martin said he hopes to be in The Medallion conference center by April. The center is being developed by Columbia hotelier Rick Patel in the old Bi-Lo grocery in the former Eastmont Square shopping center.
Work on renovating the facade of the old grocery store is beginning this week, Martin said. The interior renovation, which won’t be affected by weather, will follow.
Tronco’s has been at the fairgrounds for nine years. With a year left on its lease, Martin said it was time to move.
They moved to the fairgrounds to be close to Williams-Brice Stadium. “One of our largest contracts is with the USC Athletic Department. We do the South End Zone, all the catering for home games.” Martin said.
“We have made transformations throughout the years and it was just time for something a little better,” he said. With 20,000 square feet at the fairgrounds, Tronco’s will more than double its space.
The new 43,000-square-foot facility will house all of Tronco’s operations including its sports, social and corporate catering divisions.
“We will be operating everything out of this facility,” Martin said. “Our trucks will leave from here, and of course we will be doing a lot of on-premise business.”
The company, which has about $2 million in annual revenue, does events all over South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. Tronco’s has about 25 permanent employees in its culinary, operations, sales and facilities rental departments. Because of the business’ seasonal nature, another 40 temporary workers are provided through staffing agencies, Martin said.
“This is a big project for us. We are going to have to work hard to fill this center up. But we like a good challenge,” he said. “This is probably going to grow our company significantly.”
Martin said he doesn’t yet know what the total investment is going to be. The upfitting will be more than $1 million, he said.
The building will be set up for a conference center, but it will be designed to be suitable for corporate and social catering, Martin said.
The almost 14,000-square-foot ballroom will seat nearly 1000 for dinner, Martin said.
The facility also will have plenty of breakout and board rooms as well as a huge prefunction area, he said.
“We will have very nice salons with indoor and outdoor areas, and plenty of parking,” Martin said.
“We can be a one-stop shop now. We are a special events company. We are not just caterers. We are event planners.” he said.
In addition, they also will book hotel rooms for guests through Patel’s nearby properties.
The hotelier plans to tear down an adjoining retail strip and develop a new 132-room Hampton Inn & Suites which should open in November of 2008, Patel said. The hotel and conference center will not be joined, he said.
The prolific developer already owns three other hotels surrounding the new conference center: a Quality Inn & Suites, Comfort Inn and Suites and a new Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites.
In addition, there are four other nearby hotels, which will put nearly 800 rooms within easy walking distances of the conference center.
Patel said he got the idea for the conference center to take advantage of the hotels in the area. He originally wanted to call it the Fort Jackson Conference Center but the Army nixed that idea.
Patel’s own construction company is doing the work to convert the old grocery into the conference center and build the Hampton Inn.
He also has an out-parcel in front of the Medallion Center committed to a national restaurant chain, he said.
State Fair Manager Gary Goodman said the fair probably will not look for another caterer to take the Tronco’s space.
The space could be used by meetings that are already held at the fairgrounds, Goodman said.
“One of the requests we often have is for breakout rooms. This would give us that option,” he said.
For Tronco’s, the fairgrounds had its own particular problems, Martin said.
“Every time there is a gun show, a knife show, a home show, boat show, I’m locked up. I didn’t realize how that would affect my business. The. S.C. State Fair has been great to work with, we just have different corporate cultures,” Martin said.
Martin said he had been looking for a new home for Tronco’s. He and Patel have known each other for years and both serve on the board of directors of the S.C. Hospitality Association. They had wanted to do something together, he said.
He also wanted to have a facility large enough and nice enough to reclaim some of the business he lost to the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.
