Gus Pine focused on 'aggressive' progress as Erie Events' new executive director

Gus Pine's predecessor was an icon who helped reshape Erie's waterfront and downtown entertainment scene over nearly four decades.

But Pine, Erie Events' executive director since early February, is forging his own path and has plenty of big plans as the organization's successor to Casey Wells.

Pine, 50, was selected in December by the Erie County Convention Center Authority's board of directors to replace Wells, who had announced in September that he planned to retire in early 2023. The board oversees Erie Events.

New executive director: Erie Events picks Gus Pine to succeed Casey Wells

A native of Syracuse, New York, Pine had been general manager of the Bayfront Convention Center since November 2016. He is a hospitality industry veteran, having previously served as general manager of the Radisson Hotel and vice president of convention sales and services for the Lansing Center, both located in Lansing, Mich.

Pine, who lives in Fairview Township, is married with two teenage daughters.

Wells recommended Pine for Erie Events' top job, saying that Pine "has the experience and the leadership skills and ability to lead this organization. He’s just a sharp guy with great intuition."

Saying goodbye: After nearly 40 years at the helm, Erie Events Executive Director Casey Wells is retiring

Erie Events operates the Bayfront Convention Center, Warner Theatre, Erie Insurance Arena and UPMC Park. The organization also oversees two waterfront hotels connected to the convention center: the Sheraton Erie Bayfront Hotel on West Dobbins Landing and the Courtyard Erie Bayfront Hotel, located on the Sassafras Street Pier.

Renovation of the iconic Warner Theatre: 'A beautiful place'

Erie Events also installed nearly 4,000 feet of public walkways, featuring metal benches, fishing pods, landscaping and lighting, near the convention center as part of $7 million worth of environmental remediation work at the 12½-acre site that once housed GAF Materials Corp.

Erie Events wants to create a mixed-use development at the former GAF property that includes ample public access and generates property taxes. The organization also constructed a parking garage on the site that services the Courtyard hotel and includes the Bay House & Pier 6 restaurants.

The organization is also developing a year-round, multimillion-dollar indoor market house on the city's west bayfront, near the former GAF property and the Bayfront Parkway.

The Erie Times-News recently sat down with Pine to discuss his approach to the job and priority projects. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Navigating job complexities

Question: What is something about this job that surprised you or that you did not anticipate?

Answer: One of the things I noticed right out of the gate was just the idea that this position requires a lot of balance. I anticipated it a little bit, but every item that crosses your desk, as director of this organization, is important to the community, or your staff.  So you can’t get bogged down by a specific project, and I had to work on that.  Things cross your desk, and you really have to give everything your full attention.

When I was at the Convention Center, obviously that was a big job but it’s nothing like this one, overseeing multiple venues. So my first few months there was a lot of making sure there was that balance, so that every item got full attention.

Replacing Wells

What is the most important thing you’ve had to consider when you succeed someone who held the job as long as Casey Wells did?

There were portions of the job Casey did just by muscle memory, after 40 or so years of experience. I knew that would be the case.  And I likely would not be able to come in right away and do those things. There are things he did which likely will require another full-time employee.

A good example would be booking artists and acts.  Most of the business he did was done with a handful of veteran promoters who are nearing retirement too.  He had a lot of connections to do that work easily that he built over decades.  In the future we’re probably going to want to look at hiring someone full-time to handle the booking of artists, being a liaison to promoters, maybe someone who can help grow our Broadway Series.  So all that has made me look at how things should be structured going forward.

Market house update

Where do things stand with the bayfront market house?

We just received new design drawings on that. The next step is that we are getting prices from estimators, we’re going to do another estimate of the total cost of the project. We originally estimated it at around $9 million; I anticipate it will be more than that based on where construction costs have gone.

Proposed bayfront market: Here's what it could look like

We really need an expert estimator to look at the drawings. Plus we look at the geotechnical stuff, what we’re going to need in terms of a foundation for the building. It’s part of what I would call the next phase of our bayfront development, and it’s one of our top priorities at Erie Events.

Erie Events priorities

What are some of those other priorities?

Really our priorities are three things: the market house; finding a private developer to develop the GAF property; and to get a full-time tenant into the space that’s next to the Bay House in the parking garage at the Courtyard by Marriott to finish off that development.

With GAF, we believe that what needs to happen is this: we brought it to Act 2 compliance with the state in terms of the (environmental) remediation. If we can sell it to a developer who can provide retail, housing or some mix of that, it will put the property on the tax rolls and provide tax base for the community. We’re probably going to need to commit to some kind of covenant with the developer in terms of any future remediation that’s needed. That’s an unknown. A developer might get nervous about it as soon as they start to dig to put in other infrastructure, so we’re going to have to walk next to them on that in terms of what our responsibility would be moving forward. There’s not a big concern about issues, it’s more about elimination of risk to a developer.

And with the empty parking garage commercial space, I’ve actually had recent conversations with somebody who is very interested in that space.

Facilities' finances

Based on Erie Events’ financial statements, your facilities could lose more than $1 million this year; is there still a COVID-19 hangover?  What other factors are at play? 

I would say it’s definitely not a COVID hangover. The Convention Center is going to have its best year ever, by a lot, approaching $5 million in revenue. The Warner, it’s hard to compare it to the past because we have more event spaces in there now, like the rehearsal hall. But we had 134 events in 2022 and that’s going to grow.

Erie Insurance Arena, different story. It’s been a struggle coming out of COVID to get large concerts and events there. Part of that is because after COVID, there was such a demand for artists to play venues that were ‘easy sells’ and they got the acts. And now we’re in the summer, and the artists want to be outside in venues. I’ll likely be talking to our board about being more aggressive when it comes to bookings in the arena. If we’re going to attract big-time artists, the game has changed in that area and we need to play more of an active role with the promoters. And we want to see diversity of artists, not just country or hard rock.

Predictions for future

In five years, say, what do you forecast/expect for Erie Events and its properties? 

In five years, I would love to see more large concerts in the arena. I would like to explore the possibility of a second tenant for the arena, whether that’s basketball or arena football or soccer or something. I want to see our Broadway Series be as successful as the Erie Philharmonic is and that is a very achievable goal. We built that (Warner) stage to be able to accommodate large Broadway show runs and that has to happen, in my mind.

We need to finish our bayfront projects, and we also need to continue to look to fit any other needs that arise for this community.

Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNflowers.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Gus Pine looks to be aggressive as new chief of Erie Events