Jamie, Melissa Keating talk about gut-wrenching week leaving RiverMill Event Center

It has been a gut-wrenching week for Jamie and Melissa Keating, one of the most difficult in their 24 years of marriage.

In October, Jamie Keating Culinary lost the lease on the RiverMill Event Center, a high-end catering and event venue located along the Chattahoochee riverfront in what is left of the old Bibb Mill.

Wednesday night at midnight, they closed the door on a place that has been a huge part of their life — and family — for more than a decade. With the help of then-owner Brent Buck, they turned an antique mall into an event center capable of handling weddings, charity fundraisers and other celebrations for hundreds of guests.

At the center of the business has been Jamie Keating’s ability to prepare and serve food. He is the closest thing Columbus has to a celebrity chef.

During a Thursday afternoon at EPIC, a downtown Columbus restaurant, the two talked candidly about what happened, how hard it has been and where the business goes from here.

“The misconception is we may have moved out of a building, but to me right now, it is just a building,” Melissa Keating said.

Sitting under a large family photo that served as the family’s most recent Christmas card, Melissa Keating then reached out and patted her husband’s heart.

“RiverMill is right here,” she said, gently touching his chest. “It’s right inside here. We built it. It will be here. Nobody can replace it and nobody can do what Jamie Keating has done. I stand with that 100 percent.”

The event center, though owned by the Hospital Authority of Columbus, has been the primary location for Jamie Keating’s successful event and catering business since 2006. Jamie Keating lost his RiverMill lease when he failed to notify the Hospital Authority last year of his intention to renew the lease.

Jamie Keating Culinary had a three-year lease and two one-year renewals with the Hospital Authority of Columbus. The agreement was entered into after the authority purchased the property in 2014. The lease expired Wednesday at midnight. Keating was required to notify the authority in writing 180 days before the lease expired of his intention to extend the lease for a year. Keating missed that Aug. 5 deadline, he said.

It was announced on Oct. 25 that Valley Hospitality Services, one of Columbus-based The Pezold Companies that owns and operates hotels and restaurants, would be the new RiverMill management company beginning Feb. 1. Valley Hospitality’s first event there is scheduled for Feb. 10.

Jamie Keating never considered the possibility his business would be out at RiverMill.

“I just assumed we were going to be here forever,” he said. “Why would I tell my beautiful brides, my nonprofits I love more than anything ... why would I tell them we have a spot for you and we are not going to be there. Why would I book $800,000 worth of business and we are not going to be there.”

Keating is still looking for a place to move his event business. There are no private locations in Columbus that compare to RiverMill in size and location, so he is taking his time.

“They say measure twice and cut,” he said. “We are going to measure three times before we cut.”

One of the options is the Eagle and Phenix powerhouses just out the side door of EPIC. The W.C. Bradley Company, which owns Eagle & Phenix, is in the process of getting those historic structures ready for event space, said Real Estate Division President Pace Halter.

“It will be opened as an event center, but we are still trying to determine how we are going to operate the event venue. Right now we are exploring all options,” Halter said.

Jamie Keating said he has had offers to do an event center in two other cites, but has decided to keep the business in Columbus and find a new location. Jamie Keating plans to keep all 60 of his employees — “Even if I have to take out a loan,” he said.

The operation of EPIC, a restaurant at the Eagle & Phenix mill that has twice been recognized as a AAA Four Diamond Award winner, will not be impacted by the loss of the RiverMill lease, Jamie Keating said.

“EPIC is going to be bigger and stronger,” he said.

A lot of their friends and customers are making it a point to dine at EPIC during this difficult time, Melissa Keating said.

“I think because of everything — we are always busy — but my phone yesterday was ringing off the hook with reservations,” Melissa Keating said. “EPIC is EPIC. And it is going nowhere.”

Thursday afternoon, the Keatings finally slowed down — they had worked until 3 a.m. the night before — and reflected on what the RiverMill has meant to them.

Keating’s lease expired at midnight on Jan. 31, but he had two major events booked into the RiverMill the week before he had to vacate. On Jan. 25, there almost 600 guests for a seated dinner for the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce annual meeting.

Two nights later, more than 500 people attended the Deimel Ball, a major fundraiser for St. Anne-Pacelli School.

The Keatings are devout Catholics and through it was fitting that more than 11 years of work in the RiverMill complex ended with a charity event for the Columbus Catholic school.

“It was an event that we have wanted forever, and finally we got it four years ago,” Jamie Keating said. “It was a blessing to have such a beautiful, spiritual event and at the same time be our last event.”

It was at the conclusion of the Deimel Ball that Jamie Keating realize that his work at the RiverMill was done.

“I think that was the worst,” Jamie Keating said. “That was the hardest part.”

They then had to empty the nearly 60,000 square feet of stuff that was part of running a successful event center that caters to large and small groups. They took everything that wasn’t bolted down, and some of the stuff that was. They removed every chair, table, all the silverware, glass ware, picture frames, some fixtures, stoves and other items to a 4,000-square-foot storage building across the parking lot from the event center.

Wednesday night the Keatings and three of their four children — their eldest son, Christopher who is studying journalism at Penn State University could not make it — had a family dinner at EPIC, then went back to RiverMill for a final walk through.

“Our kids grew up there,” Melissa Keating said. “My daughter (Katie, 13) was 2 when we started there. We have had graduation parties for my kids, birthday parties, I used to chair the auction for LaGrange Academy and we have had major auctions there, we have had had personal Thanksgivings.”

It was emotional as the reality set in, Melissa Keating said.

“When everything was gone and it was completely empty, I realized that it was just the shell of a building,” Melissa Keating said. “There wasn’t evidence of us ever being there and it was easier to walk away. It still hurt because once the doors closed, you knew you were never walking back in there to do all these major events we have been doing for the last 12 years. That hurts.”

“It was hard,” Melissa Keating said. “Once I walked in there and we removed everything — because everything was ours. When we moved in there, it was not RiverMill Event Centre, it was something we built together with Mr. Buck. There were rooms that weren’t finished. We helped design them. We helped design the kitchen. It wasn’t a full working event center.”

“It was an antique mall,” Jamie Keating added.

While their business has been in Columbus, the Keatings have maintained their home and raised their children in LaGrange, Ga., since 2006.

“I have always been superstitious — Why don’t you move to Columbus; why don’t you move to Columbus? — I said because everything is going great, everything is going fantastic, but when we move to Columbus everything might go wrong,” Keating said. “We have been through a fire ... two sales of the RiverMill within ‘X’ amount of years. We have persevered because we have a servant’s heart.”

When it became obvious they had lost the RiverMill lease because of a failure to meet the terms of the contract, there was a big impact to the business — both on the financial and emotional side. They had about 40 events on the books for 2018 and some booked into 2019 and 2020.

“Going into it, we would have never booked them if we had known or been notified earlier,” Melissa Keating said. “We hurt people’s feelings and it was hard. We had to give back deposits —rightfully so, they deserve it — but having to tell someone we can’t do your wedding or you can’t get married here with us. That was hard.”

Melissa Keating senses this will all work out.

“Everything happens for a reason,” she said. “It hurts, but we gotten a ton of support. And this guy can do anything.”

This story was originally published February 2, 2018 at 12:48 PM with the headline "Jamie, Melissa Keating talk about gut-wrenching week leaving RiverMill Event Center."