TOLEDO, Ohio — A local man who is vowing to bring major acts to Toledo’s Promenade Park sat down for nearly 90 minutes on Wednesday morning with 11 Investigates to address multiple questions about his background and plans for the city’s summer concert series.
Since early August, the city has been considering a proposal to lease Promenade Park to Hunter Brucks and his company, HBC Management, for $10. In return, Brucks would bring a minimum of 10 concerts and possibly up to 25 shows to the site. He plans to install 3,500-3,800 fixed, stadium seats that would be premium seats near the stage – a stage that his team would build. The Monroe resident told us that his team believes it can safely have 9,500 fans, plus vendors inside for shows.
He told Toledo City Council and 11 Investigates that the city will have no financial risk and his company will provide security and other staff. He said he has provided a letter to the city, vowing to use union workers.
He will fund the shows and take profits, but he said there will be a financial benefit to the city.
“Our marquee acts will increase the hotel tax, help restaurants, motels, shopping,” Brucks said, adding that for big-name acts, visitors would likely stay in town for multiple days.
A prominent act could cost as much as $300,000 to book. With other overhead costs, an average ticket price would be close to $50 for him to at least break even. But he said there is no reason to believe that lawn seats would need to be more than $25-30.
11 Investigates spent several days checking into Brucks’ past history in promoting shows and festivals. He addressed those questions during the 79-minute, unedited interview that took place Wednesday morning at WTOL. Watch the full interview here:
The proposal to lease the park to Brucks remains in council’s economic development committee. It could be voted on Tuesday, but several members have said they want to see financial statements from Brucks before handing over the concert series to him. It needs to be voted out of committee before appearing before council as a whole.
The city would enter into an agreement with HBC Management LLC. Brucks is also president/CEO of HB Concerts. He was pressed multiple times on showing his books and said that he has not done it yet and that – right now – most of his money is in HB Concerts. But he did express a willingness to show the city financials.
Brucks and council members agree that time is running out on booking an attractive lineup for next summer. Brucks did say he has offers out to several big names, but they cannot commit until he receives a commitment. The city did not open up a bidding process for managing the series. It is unlikely, at this point, that another promotion company would be able to step in and salvage the series.