Jamie Keating vacates RiverMill, Valley Hospitality moves in as new manager

In the wee hours of Thursday morning under a full moon, the management of a popular north Columbus riverfront event center changed hands.

Representatives of Valley Hospitality Services went into the RiverMill Event Center at 12:01 a.m. and changed the locks and began to survey the condition of the facility that has been under the management of Jamie Keating Culinary since it opened in 2006.

The first change was a subtle one. The name of the venue under Keating was RiverMill Event Centre. The new property managers are going to spell “center” with an “er” and not “re.”

What Valley Hospitality found was a 56,000-square-foot shell, said Cassie Myers, marketing and public relations director for The Pezold Companies, which owns Valley Hospitality.

By midmorning, a couple of dozen Valley Hospitality employees and contractors were moving through the facility cleaning and making repairs in preparation for the first scheduled event, an Aflac dinner for about 75 guests on Feb. 10.

“We are replacing carpeting in some of the rooms, we are painting, we are upgrading our bridal suite with all new furniture,” Myers said.

They have ordered new plates, cups, silverware, linen and all of the other essentials needed to operate an event catering business.

“Everything is going to be brand new,” Myers said. “There is nothing that was left in the building. We are starting from scratch and we are excited.”

Once Myers and RiverMill Event Center Director Lindsay Norton walked into the facility and got over the shock of the lack of the basics — light bulbs, restroom signs and other elements — they said they see this an an opportunity.

“I think it is a fresh start and we can start with new items,” Norton said. “We know when they have been purchased, the history of them. A fresh start is always good.”

The building, though owned by the Hospital Authority of Columbus, has been the primary location for Keating’s successful event business.

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.

Since it was announced on Oct. 25 that Keating Culinary had lost the lease and Valley Hospitality was the new management company, Myers and Norton had been booking events starting this month, but did not have access to the center to schedule things on site.

“For clients, I have had to meet them at another location, talk to them about hypotheticals. And now I can meet a client, walk them through the space,” Norton said. “It is a lot easier to make decisions.”

That all changed Thursday morning. By 9:30 a.m., Norton had completed two new bookings. There are about 40 events scheduled between now and the end of the year, Norton said. The largest is an 800-person military ball in May, Norton said.

“We have several weddings on the books right now, but one of the things we want to push going forward is it’s not just weddings,” Myers said. “We’ll have corporate events, we will have fund-aisers. The American Cancer Society is doing an event here. The American Heart Association is doing an event here and we have a lot of military functions.”

Jamie Keating Culinary started the RiverMill Event Centre in 2006 and has operated it since the opening, including in 2008 when most of the old Bibb Mill, which houses the venue, was destroyed by fire. Keating is one of the city’s most well-known chefs and owns Epic, a nationally recognized fine dining restaurant in downtown Columbus.

Last Thursday, the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce held a seated dinner for almost 600 people at the RiverMill. There was also an event for 500 on Saturday night.

Keating has not announced plans on what will be next for his event business, Jamie Keating Culinary.

Myers said now that Valley Hospitality is on site, they can move past the last three months, which have been difficult because of the way Jamie Keating Culinary lost the lease.

“The biggest struggle we have had is people knowing that we are not closing,” Myers said. “That is the biggest rumor we have had to combat the last three or four months is the RiverMill is closing and we will no longer be functioning. That’s been hard combat because we don’t have the phone line and we don’t have access.”

Executive Chef Jeffrey Brammer, who has worked for Valley Hospitality for 10 years, will assume responsibility for the RiverMill kitchen the event food service.

“He has already managed several of our properties and their food service,” Norton said. “He is well versed in large events, as well as small event. We think he is very capable. ... He is ready to take on this.”

The venue will have about 100 employees, many of them part time.

This story was originally published February 1, 2018 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Jamie Keating vacates RiverMill, Valley Hospitality moves in as new manager."