Juggling Act

A sprit of adventure runs high in Casey Rodgers, a Manatee County executive who trained to become a commercial airline pilot in college.

But even Rodgers paused when he read a cryptic help wanted ad one day in the Baltimore Sun in 1998. The ad stated: “Local entertainment firm needs a senior financial analyst.”

Then an executive with a pharmaceutical firm, Rodgers took a chance. He responded to the ad. Turns out it was Vienna, Va.-based Feld Entertainment, owners of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus and one of the largest show business and family production firms in the world. “I didn't know it was the circus,” says Rodgers, “until I showed up at the office.”

Rodgers stuck around. Now he's the local ringleader for Feld, which, in a little more than two years, has transformed a massive Siemens wind turbine factory in northeastern Manatee County into hospitality heaven. The 46-acre complex, on the north edge of the Manatee River in Ellenton, is Feld's global production headquarters — though corporate offices remain outside Washington, D.C. Says Rodgers: “We want to create a destination for the birth of entertainment.”

The $30 million facility, Feld's ground-zero planning and production masterpiece for everything from Monster Jam truck shows to Disney on Ice, has also created a bellwether project for Manatee County. Global, too, given Feld shows are produced in 73 countries in six continents worldwide.

For one, Feld has hired 220 people for the facility, from entry level to trades to senior managers. Those are in addition to 150 or so employees who moved from other locations, including one in Manatee County and one in Tampa. Others came from facilities in North Carolina and the corporate headquarters.

Now with a payroll of 370 — and there are plans to grow that number even more this year — Feld is the seventh-largest private employer in Manatee County. It's also the second biggest company on the top 10 list of top employers that makes stuff, behind only Tropicana, with 1,200 employees.

“We are becoming the kind of employer people have been looking for,” says Rodgers, with an official title of vice president of finance and strategic planning for Feld Entertainment. “We are an operations organization. We need people who can jump in here and do it.”

The project has also stirred some buzz in the Ellenton-Palmetto business community, where there are few others with that kind of size and scope. “It was a big vacant building for a while,” says Peter VanDerNoord, an entrepreneur and real estate investor who owns properties in the area. “It's nice to have the building off the market and people moved in there.”

'Great exposure'
Feld's growth and early success has even surprised Rodgers, who has already begun to plan for more expansion. That includes possibly adding a 12,000-square-foot office building on the campus. “It's a 600,000-square-foot building, but we've begun to run out of space,” Rodgers says. “That's something we didn't anticipate.”

One final positive aspect of Feld's fast run to glory, at least from the perspective of economic development officials, is it almost didn't happen. Feld considered consolidating all its production work in North Carolina.

But Florida and Manatee County wooed the firm, in part, with a jobs performance-based incentive package that totaled $3.3 million. Around $1.7 million is from the Florida Qualified Targeted Industry fund and another $1.5 million comes from Manatee County. Bradenton Area Economic Development Corp. President and CEO Sharon Hillstrom says the company's decision to expand locally wasn't only a boost for the firm and employees. It was also was an adrenaline shot for the county.

“It speaks well for Manatee County that they chose here for their corporate headquarters, ” says Hillstrom. “It gives us great exposure on a global perspective.”

The project dates back to May 2012, when Feld bought the facility, which General Electric also once owned, out of foreclosure for $8.5 million. The facility, the company says, is the second-largest single-occupant building in Florida, behind only the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

The complex breaks down into thirds: About 100,000 square feet is office space, while another 180,000 square feet is for rehearsal space. Around 300,000 square feet space is for shop space. From the front door to the back door is the equivalent of three football fields. A full tour can take up to four hours.

But for all the size, much of what goes on inside the facility is off-limits to visitors most of the time. That's especially true for production season, when shows go into rehearsals. For example, the first-ever Marvel Universe live tour, with Spiderman, Ironman and others, is currently in rehearsal mode inside the gates. The show, in preparation for an 85-set tour, debuts in Tampa in July.

Smile sellers
But Feld is more than Marvel.

The facility also is home to 22 Monster Jam trucks worth at least $5 million; 13 portable ice rinks; 10,000 circus costumes organized by color; more than 100 elephant blankets that weigh around 250 pounds each; dozens of crates with dancing shoes and show hats; a 128-foot long painting booth; and a rail car facility where Feld employees build Ringling Bros. cars from scratch and refurbish old ones.

Then there's the show-planning department, the Hollywood equivalent of a storyboard for a movie. At Feld, crews build 1-inch scale models for every production. The models cost from $25,000 to $75,000 each.

The idea behind the campus is both laboratory for experimenting on shows and assembly line for building the final product. The facility is also available for temporary lease to outside organizations. Feld officials say most shows the firm produces have budgets that go well into the millions. “The goal is to create all our shows in this facility,” says Rodgers. “We can make amazing, phenomenal things.”

Of course, there's also a business side to the Feld complex. Dozens of cubicles are home to sales, marketing, tickets, customer service, IT and several other departments. The carpets are on the floors are colored in blue, red and yellow circus style. Nameplates for the offices that surround the cubicles are also decorated in circus colors.

The white-collar employees in the offices and cubicles mix nicely with the blue-collar workers who build the guts of a show, says Rodgers. That kind of collaboration, he adds, has been ingrained in the firm's DNA for decades.

Unity like that is necessary in the competitive industry of family entertainment. Feld competes against sporting events, movies and everything else families do for fun. It also competes against anything that impacts consumer confidence, from gas prices to political elections. “Our product isn't a show,” says Rodgers, in an oft-repeated Feld Entertainment theme. “It's a kid's smile.”

Family business
Feld has moved many children's cheeks, even with the competition. Around 30 million people attend one of Feld's 5,000 live entertainment shows every year and a January story in Forbes magazine estimated Feld's 2013 revenues at around $1 billion a year. Executives decline to elaborate on specific revenue figures.  

The business behind it all, at the top, is a family-run operation. Kenneth Feld is chairman and CEO. He's been with the company since 1970, when he joined his father, Irvin Feld. The elder Feld, a concert promoter, bought the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus from the Ringling family in 1967.

The firm acquired the license to present and produce Disney-themed ice shows in 1981 — a major milestone. Multiple other brands followed in the next 25 years. Kenneth Feld's three daughters also followed him into the business: Nicole, Alana and Juliette Feld now all hold executive vice president positions.

Rodgers, who joined Feld Entertainment after he answered the Baltimore Sun ad, is also good fit for show business. His first job after he graduated from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne with a degree in management and aviation was with Kiwi International Airlines in Newark, N.J. The upstart airline soon encountered financial issues, and Rodgers' dream of becoming a pilot morphed into money management. He became assistant treasurer and helped guide the firm out of bankruptcy.

After several other career stops, Rodgers says Feld feels like home. “Every morning you wake up and there's an opportunity to use all your skills to solve a problem,” Rodgers says. “This job is never boring and never dull.”

AT A GLANCE
Feld Entertainment
Year Founded: 1967
Executives: Kenneth Feld; daughters Nicole, Alana and Juliette Feld are executive vice presidents.
Brands: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus; Marvel Universe Live; Disney On Ice; Disney Live; Monster Jam truck show; Monster Supercross; Nuclear Cowboyz;
Source: Feld Entertainment

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Company. Feld Entertainment Industry. Hospitality, entertainment Key. Company has become one of the largest private employers in Manatee County.

HISTORY TOUR
Just like the circus, there's a rich history behind the northeast Manatee County building where Feld Production produces and rehearses it shows.

The land was home to the largest grapefruit grove in the world in the early 1900s. Pink grapefruit was discovered there;

Siemens Corp. built a $50 million factory on the land in 1984 to make parts for hydroelectric dam generators, and later, wind turbines;

General Electric owned the building for a time, where it also manufactured wind turbines;

The building went into foreclosure in 2012. Feld Entertainment bought it in May 2012 for $8.35 million. Firm spent more than $20 million on a renovation project. It took occupancy in December 2012, and it now has 370 employees.

Source: Feld Entertainment