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Eckert and other senior members of his Civic Center Management team signed the management contract with the Government and BIL today on the floor of the Civic. We got a chance to meet and speak with the new managers of the most expensive public building in Belize's history. Here's what they told us:

Christy Mastry - GM, Belize Infrastructure Limited
"We finally came to a decision of the preferred conditional bidder. We went into some final negotiations with the contract with Apex International LLC, and we are now here today with the company which will now be taking on the process."

Hon. Patrick Faber - Deputy Prime Minister
"I'm absolutely happy, I am absolutely convinced that in signing this management contract that the Government is operating in a manner that fit and proper. I am pleased that under my leadership, we can sign this agreement with such a reputable firm."

Reynaldo Malik - Operations Manager, Belize Civic Center
"On behalf of Apex Belize, I'd like to say that we are extremely pleased to be the successful bidders for the management of the new Civic. This is an impressive facility."

Chad Eckert - Managing Director, Belize Civic Center
"It's a truly state of the art type of venue that is here. There's lots of opportunity that you can do here. The way it was built was - there's a lot of things in it that I didn't think would be in it. When I found out that it was, I was very impressed of different things that were already incorporated into the building. There were ideas that when I first came here, I said I would have wanted to do this, this and that. I come to find out that you guys already thought about that, and it was already in there. So, I'm very impressed with the building overall."

Daniel Ortiz
"The concern has been that this facility is too expensive for Belizeans to maintain. So, can you give us assurances that you and your team will be able to maintain the facility and generate the type of income necessary to run the services around it?"

Reynaldo Malik
"It's no secret how much it cost to build. That being said, there are 365 days to the year. The secret to generating the revenue not just to cover the expenses of the civic, but also to generate revenue back to the government and to make a profitable venture for Apex, is going to be in our ability to utilize all 365 days of the year. That's, in essence, the sort of secret sauce when it comes to venue management. Not only are there 365 days in the year, but there's also 24 hours in a day, which means that we can have multiple events on every single day. That's up to us to come up with a good conversion team that convert, for instance, from a convention in the day, to a basketball game in the night, and then back to something else the following morning. Our combined experience, Apex's combined experience, is exactly in that particular area of expertise, We are going to be able to do that, and not only cover the expenses on an annual basis, but also, like I said, generate revenue for both the Government of Belize and Apex."

Chad Eckert
"In the US, we've done everything from small intimate VIP parties that may have a few hundred people, up to basketball games that have 8,000 people, up to large concerts that hold about 60,000 to 70,000. So, we have a wide range of experience in every type of aspect that you can think of that could be sponsored here."

So, to a bit more of the specifics: we told you last time that the technicians have estimated that it will cost between $800,000 to a million dollars to run the civic for 1 year. Apex will be responsible to try and rent the facility over the course of that year to cover that cost. After that, whatever revenues they generated above operations costs, will be split between the company and the government in a profit sharing mechanism.

The initial contract with Apex to run the facility is for a 3-year term. The company must be making that nearly one million dollars annually for their management of the facility to be considered a success. If they are not, then their management will be considered a failure, and bids will be put out again for a new manager to be identified.

If they can meet the operational costs for those 3 years, then, they get priority for a renewal. Any revenue above that will be shared 75% to the Government and 25% to the company. The more successful they are, the bigger their share of the profits be until, until it reaches a ratio of 50/50. Of course, there are those 1,000 hours of free use by the Government and the new managers, which will be carefully worked out to provide all the key stakeholders an opportunity to access the Civic.