By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer

The American Theater’s Feb. 28 changeover from a movie house to a venue for corporate meetings and events might have disappointed downtown Charleston’s moviegoers, who no longer have a full-time movie theater on the peninsula.

However, Randall Goldman, managing partner of Patrick Properties, which owns the American Theater, the William Aiken House and Fish restaurant, located side by side on upper King Street, considers the switch from flicks to events a no-brainer of a business move.

The change strengthens Patrick Properties’ position to grab a larger share of downtown Charleston’s corporate events market, Goldman says. In 2002, that market generated an economic impact of more than $180 million, according to the latest figures from the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Business Research.

Meetings and group tours account for 25% to 30% of the Lowcountry’s $5.1 billion tourism industry, according to Suzanne Wallace, sales director for the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau. Hotels account for roughly 132,000 square feet of downtown Charleston’s corporate meeting space. That figure is expected to grow as proposed hotels for the upper King Street corridor are built.

Movies at the American Theater were “never profitable,” Goldman points out. He had to pay between $3,000 and $6,000 a month to Miramax and other studios for each film he rented. He usually rented two films a month, and movies that bombed flushed money down Patrick Properties’ drain. Additionally, Goldman had to fork over to the studios 70% of the American Theater’s movie-ticket sales from each film.

While the movie side of Patrick Properties sank, the company’s corporate meetings and special events business soared. Last year, Patrick Properties made “well over $1 million” from weddings at the William Aiken House and business functions throughout all three properties, Goldman claims.

Goldman predicted the theater’s future three years ago, when he renovated the movie house with business conferences in mind.

At that time, the theater went unused during the day. Goldman turned that idle space into a moneymaking venue for meetings. He installed stadium seating with an electrical outlet and Internet access for each of the 350 seats, thus gearing the theater for PowerPoint presentations, slide shows, video conferencing, live video feeds and virtual classrooms. The high tech wiring connected the theater to the William Aiken House and Fish restaurant so that participants in a conference could view an on-site presentation from any of the three properties.

This enabled Goldman to increase the size of his event bookings from about 900 attendees, gathered solely at the William Aiken House, to about 1,300 attendees when combining capacity from all three properties. And because the American Theater—now known simply as The American—no longer shows nightly movies, conferences in the theater can last beyond 4:30 p.m., the time they had to close so the theater could prepare for its movie showings.

Hosting longer, larger conferences and events in a historical Charleston setting has been a boon to Goldman. The William Aiken House will hold 64 wedding parties this year, twice that of last year, says spokeswoman Elizabeth Swink. Patrick Properties as a whole is booked through October for conferences and other events.

Charleston’s national popularity as a tourist destination and the increase in corporate travel is driving the need for more meeting space, says Wallace.

Patrick Properties, The Gaillard Municipal Auditorium and Exhibition Hall, The Charleston Maritime Center, The S.C. Aquarium and several other venues provide more than 89,400 square feet of additional meeting space on the peninsula, according to the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Since Jan. 1, corporate group travel to Charleston “has turned on like a faucet,” says Tripp Hayes, sales and marketing director for the Mill House hotel. The Mills House’s corporate business for February exceeded the hotel’s goal by more than $60,000, says Hayes, adding that similar numbers are expected for April.

Hayes attributes the boon to an improved national economy. Corporate travel plans “were bottled up for a couple of years” until the economy turned upward, he says. Also, the Charleston arrival of discount airline Independence Air and its low airfares has been “a big help,” Hayes adds.

Although the Charleston Area Convention Center Complex in North Charleston provides about 105,000 square feet of exhibit and meeting space, the most in the Lowcountry, the complex competes only marginally with downtown Charleston venues, says Ed Riggs, sales director for the Convention Center.

“We tend to attract large groups that need more than one hotel,” explains Riggs.

Downtown Charleston’s beauty and history keep it a popular destination for conferences, explains Hayes.

“When the day’s meetings are over, groups from out of town like to walk around and see the city,” he says.

Dennis Quick covers hospitality and tourism for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@crbj.com.

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