Convention Center changes food vendors after 44 years

Exterior of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

For the first time in more than four decades, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will have a new vendor providing food and beverage services to the Las Vegas Convention Center and Cashman Field.

Aramark Sports and Entertainment Service LLC, a Philadelphia-based company, is being replaced by Centerplate of Stamford, Conn., after a unanimous vote of the LVCVA board today.

Aramark’s contract will end Dec. 31, and Centerplate will begin on Jan. 1.

As part of the 7½ year deal, Centerplate is expected to pay the LVCVA an average yearly commission of $7.8 million. The contract can be extended, in two three-year increments, if both parties agree.

“Aramark has been servicing clients in the convention center … right at 44 years,” said Rana Lacer, chief financial officer of the LVCVA. “It was not one contract, but a series of contracts. As one contract ended, another series would be negotiated.”

Lacer said it was time to open the contract to competition.

“It was the first time in 35 years it was put out in a request for proposal (RFP),” she said. “Maybe it went to RFP one time, maybe decade ago. But that is really too long to not put the contract out in competitive environment.”

Centerplate is already here working on the transition, Lacer said. That’s a good thing, given that the first major convention of the year, the Consumer Electronics Show, starts Jan. 5.

“They are already ramping up so on Jan. 1 they will be fully staffed and engaged in the process and ready to service CES,” Lacer said. “One of the big coups with this deal was getting an agreement in place with the Culinary Union, so we have on staff people who are already familiar with the space.”

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