Company Expands Innovative Strategy with Goucher College and Longwood University
Today marks the 25th anniversary of CENTERS, LLC., the first company in the in the U.S. to provide management services for university recreation, fitness and wellness facilities. For more than 25 years, CENTERS, has been driven by a passion for higher education and unprecedented focus on serving the client’s mission by providing unique, collaborative management solutions to campuses nationwide.
Chris Dunlavey, CENTERS co-founder and President of parent company, Brailsford & Dunlavey, Inc. reflected on the beginning of the company, “CENTERS was born out of a question posed by one of our first and favorite clients, DePaul University, when we were helping them develop the Ray Meyer Fitness and Recreation Center. At some point they said, ‘We don’t want to build a whole new department to run this building ourselves, is there anybody out there who does this on an outsourced basis?’ And from that, CENTERS’ first contract was created. And we just grew from there.”
CENTERS’ management expertise and strong technical knowledge across a broad range of issues and activities allows it to provide clients with management services that produce operational efficiencies, cost savings, and appropriate revenue-producing programs and services, while contributing to vibrant communities. Now with 13 campus sites across the country, CENTERS is uniquely positioned to continue its natural evolution into other campus centers as the company diversifies into the management and planning of facilities such as competitive sports venues, student centers, performing arts venues, conference facilities, and more. This fall, the company adds two new clients to its portfolio with the Joan Perry Brock Arena at Longwood University and Event and Conference Services at Goucher College, which includes multiple performing arts venues, a non-denominational spiritual center, sports facilities, and multi-purpose spaces.
Paul Brailsford, CENTERS co-founder and CEO of Brailsford & Dunlavey highlights what makes CENTERS’ approach to outsourced management so unique by saying “It’s a corny thought that we say, ‘Our client’s purpose is our purpose’, but that’s just what it is. We’re a concept that responds to higher education’s need for a better way to execute their purpose.”