{"id":415073,"date":"2026-09-30T21:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T21:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/415073\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T21:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T21:38:09","slug":"20-million-shakeup-hits-tampa-convention-center-the-sail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/415073\/","title":{"rendered":"$20 Million Shakeup Hits Tampa Convention Center, The Sail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"43\" title=\"tbbw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa<\/a> named Volume Services Inc. on Wednesday as its choice to take over the roughly $20 million-a-year food and beverage operation at the <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/2026\/08\/31\/the-sail-plaza-new-operator\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Convention Center and The Sail<\/a>, replacing longtime operator Aramark.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The city\u2019s purchasing director recommended Volume Services as the exclusive operator for nearly everything guests eat or drink across the 600,000-square-foot <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/hospitality\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"42\" title=\"Hospitality\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">convention center<\/a> and its waterfront <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/2026\/07\/02\/big-rays-fish-camp-michelin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sail Plaza<\/a>, from catered banquets and concession stands to alcohol service, <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/restaurants\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"46\" title=\"restaurants\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">restaurants<\/a>, bars and mobile food operations. Those venues serve more than 350,000 guests a year across roughly 300 event days, although the Sept. 30 recommendation is not yet a final award.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tampa used $20 million in first-year revenue to evaluate the proposals and assumed sales would grow 5% annually, pushing the model to roughly $24.3 million by year five. That starting point is close to what the operation already produces. Aramark reported $17.6 million in food and beverage sales from May 2025 through April 2026, including $10.7 million from catering, and $21.5 million in total revenue after other income.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those sales run through a convention center that entered 2026 with 101 events scheduled and 326,290 attendees projected, activity the city estimated would generate about $149.1 million in <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/economic-development\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"44\" title=\"economic development\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">economic impact<\/a>. Executive Director David Ingram has also said the venue generated about $17 million in direct tax revenue last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Volume Services would earn a fixed management fee plus a performance incentive, together capped at 6% of gross revenue, while sharing a percentage of food and beverage sales with Tampa. Another 5% of annual sales must go into city-owned reserves for equipment and marketing \u2014 at least $1 million a year if sales reach the city\u2019s $20 million benchmark.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Competing bidders have five business days from the Sept. 30 posting to challenge the recommendation before Volume Services can clear the city\u2019s final purchasing, <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/private-markets\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"37\" title=\"private markets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">funding<\/a>, insurance and legal reviews.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa named Volume Services Inc. on Wednesday as its choice to take over the roughly $20 million-a-year food&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-415073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}