LEXINGTON, KY - With the recent arrival of the Arcum Emporium, a huge special events structure manufactured in Europe for Lundy's Catering, the purchase of Signature Special Event Services, and the expanding emergency support outreach of Emergency Disaster Services, the Lexington based Lundergan Group shows no sign of slowing down in this stalled economy. A visit to Jerry Lundergan's office shed some light on the company and the synergy of its enterprises. Lundergan is Chairman of the Board for the Group.
"We'd be honored to have the State Department use our Arcum Emporium at a State Dinner," said Lundergan, envisioning the innovative structure set up on the White House lawn. He's working his connections to the White House to get the attention of the Social Secretary, Desiree Rogers. Looking around Lundergan's office one gets a sense of his connectedness. There are several pictures of him with Bill Clinton. There's a picture of him shaking hands with Joe Biden. A bronze bust of John F. Kennedy sits on a side table.
The Arcum Emporium, shipped from Germany, arrived in Lexington on January 15. It's a mobile, assemble-on-site, special event structure with a rounded, glass wall front and an arced roof over two stories that can provide 6,000 to 24,000 square feet of floor space, depending on a client's needs. Spiral staircases connect the two floors. Second floor outside balconies are on either side of the structure. Huge illuminated shafts give off color hued light to add to the overhead lighting. The outside walls can all be of paneled glass fit into structural aluminum tubing, or it can be hard panel walls or soft vinyl panels, or some mix of glass and other panels. It travels in eleven 40-foot containers on ten 53-foot semi-trucks. "It's a show stopper," said Lundergan. Pictures of it assembled in Germany reveal the vision of where the high end of special events shelter is headed, away from tents and into a futuristic aesthetic.
Lundergan waved into his office Danny McCrey, who had stopped by on a point of business. McCrey is general manager of the project, heading up a team of about 12 workers handling assembly and disassembly of the Emporium. "It will take about 12 to 14 days to set it up," said McCrey, "and about half that for breakdown."
In March, two engineers from Germany will train McCrey's team. They'll construct the Arcum Emporium somewhere in Lexington as an exercise. Lundergan chuckled at the idea of putting it on the controversial and vacant CentrePointe site. "It would look good there," he acknowledged. Lundergan said the Emporium is scheduled for use in Las Vegas in June by a Fortune 500 company trade show. He doesn't yet know if it will be used at the World Equestrian Games.
Lundergan's daughter, Abby Dobson, stopped by the office to talk about the Emporium. She and her sister, Alissa Tibe, spent nearly a year working out the design with the German company Losenberger, one of three German firms at the forefront of mobile structure design. Dobson says that the Emporium is a unique design, breaking away from the box shape and A-frame roofing. "They (Losenberger) see the need in the U.S. and were excited to partner with us," said Dobson. "This is ultimately where the tent industry is headed." She pointed out that such structures are more energy efficient than tents and can better sustain varying weather conditions. Assembly design and materials have advanced rapidly in recent years. She likened the interchangeability of parts to Erector Sets.
In December, the Lundergan group acquired Signature Special Event Services, a nationwide company with a vast inventory of mobile kitchens ( ranging from compact to 15,000 square feet), power generators, HVAC systems, tents of all kinds, temporary housing units, portable shower systems, latrines, lighting and more. Signature has its headquarters in Eldersberg, Maryland, just 30 miles from Washington, D.C. Branch offices include locations in Florida, Chicago and Las Vegas. It has provided its services to a wide range of events and situations, from the PGA and the Ryder Cup to emergency disaster scenes for the government and military. The acquisition of Signature will add to the inventory and outreach of both the social and emergency service arms of The Lundergan Group enterprises.
Lundy's Catering, which started as a local company, now has a national presence with its catering of sporting and other special events.
Emergency Disaster Services (EDS) already serves 38 utility companies. Last year, during the ice storms, Lundregan said EDS built 12 housing camps for emergency workers in Kentucky. The camp at Churchill Downs in Louisville housed 1,000 workers, providing sleeping quarters, showers, latrines, laundry, and meals. Lundergan said that after Katrina, EDS provided emergency worker support in New Orleans for about a year. The company also helped with emergency work in Louisiana and Texas after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
Lundergan started Lundy's catering about 40 years ago with his brothers, Tom and Mike, both still in leadership roles with the company. About 15 years ago he saw that utility companies didn't have solid plans for disaster scenarios, and he realized that his mobile kitchens could fill a need. Now the company provides a kind of insurance to utility companies that contract each year to have an EDS guarantee of service and provisions at a set cost. With the purchase of Signature, Lundergan thinks The Group now has the largest inventory of assets in the fields of catering and emergency support.
Signature brought with it 180 mega generators, 15 of which are currently parked in Lexington. Lundergan said that one mega generator can light up all of downtown Lexington. The 15 generators in Lexington along with 200 specialized semi-trucks (mobile kitchens, sleeping quarters, command centers, etc.) are in the process of being moved to property in Maysville.
"We play in all 50 states," said Lundergan. He sees that as a strong reason for the continued success of The Lundergan Group. They get to do business anywhere in the country that can afford it. But he said that the local business has also grown - local being the tri-city area of Lexington, Louisville and Cincinnati. The continued local growth despite a depressed economy he attributes to a strong sales staff and to a creative company culture. The executive chefs go to classes on the West Coast, where, Lundergan said, most creative culinary and entertainment trends start, and they bring those ideas back with them. "We work at being on the cutting edge of the rental business and food services," he said, "and at the cutting edge of emergency services to help utilities and governments."