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Luxury suites have changed, but they continue to sell

Michael Sadowski//March 3, 2014



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Local venues say their luxury suites — the intimate, high-comfort, high-cost seating options at major event venues — remain some of the most popular seating options they have, even if they now require some sales flexibility.

Officials from local venues say the lengths of ownership contracts have varied and more companies are sharing boxes, but sales of boxes remain strong with a pivotal time approaching for two of the midstate’s baseball teams.

“I’m not saying there wasn’t a lot of selling to do,” Brian Bucciarelli, director of corporate partnerships and premium seating for Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Co., said of the sellers’ market pre-recession. “But yes, it’s a little harder today.”

There are four major, locally sold luxury box destinations in the midstate: Giant Center in Derry Township, Metro Bank Park in Harrisburg, Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster and Santander Stadium in York. Officials at each of them said their luxury box sales have remained steady through the recession.

Bucciarelli said the Giant Center has rented all 37 of its corporate luxury suites available for yearly rental at between $55,000 and $80,000.

While most of the suites in the sports and concert venue that opened in 2002 were rented by one company for the first few years of the building’s existence, now Bucciarelli said a “majority” of the boxes are shared between companies.

He also said Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Co., which operates the building under the ownership of the Derry Township Industrial Commercial Development Authority, is more lenient with contract terms. Currently, he said suites, on average, have a three-year contract term.

“When the luxury-box market increased, you dictated the contract terms and how long you wanted a company to keep a suite for,” he said. “That’s not the case anymore.”

Submitted

Harrisburg Senators President Kevin Kulp said rentals of the 21 luxury suites in the Northwestern Mutual Suite Level at Metro Bank Park are better at this point of 2014, at about 80 percent rented, than they were at the start of the 2013 season, where they were about 75 percent rented.

The team keeps boxes open for nightly rentals depending on availability.

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