Twinsburg Company Provides Rockin' Additions to Perici Amphitheatre

Attending concerts at Perici Amphitheatre in Glen Chamberlin Park will be an even better experience next summer, thanks to the generosity of an international company headquartered in Twinsburg.

Two large decorative concrete patios have been created at the top of the hill, straight back from center stage, at the open-air performance venue built in 1985.

One of the patios will house the first seating ever offered at the amphitheatre, while the other will be used for concessions, meaning patrons will no longer have to leave the grassy area to buy food or drinks.

The new patios are the result of a mutually beneficial arrangement made this summer after Parks & Recreation Director Derek Schroeder contacted Joe Majewski, president and CEO of ChromaScape Inc., about becoming a concert sponsor.

“Chromascape signed on to be a sponsor for the ‘Rock the Park’ concerts this past summer and also said they’d do an in-kind donation of creating a new patio if we were interested. We were very interested, obviously,” Schroeder said with a laugh.

ChromaScape, founded in 1998, is one of the world’s top producers of environmentally friendly color dispersions and additives. According to the company, its products are used in many different markets for a broad range of applications, including the coloring of concrete, mulches, sands, aggregates, inks, paper, asphalt and recycled rubber.

Majewski said the ChromaScape family of companies includes Innotech Decorative Concrete Products, founded in January 2010. Innotech wanted to set up its first training demonstration outside of trade shows, and the city’s Perici Amphitheatre struck him as a great beneficiary.

“I’m a Twinsburg resident and my wife and I always try to attend two or three ‘Rock the Park’ concerts,” he said. “Since (ChromaScape) subscribes to supporting the city where we’re headquartered … I knew we could have a win-win situation where we could do something to help both the city and the company.”

Schroeder determined the performance venue could use two patios, one measuring 30- by 40-feet and the other, 10- by 30-feet, separated by a grassy area. High-top tables will be purchased and placed on the larger patio, while the event concessionaire contracted by the city will set up shop on the smaller patio.

The city purchased $1,500 in concrete, which Schroeder said “is nothing compared to what the project cost overall. The patios are so beautiful and so detailed, and it’s the labor that costs a fortune.”

Majewski estimates the value of the labor and Innotech materials used for the project at about $4,000.

On Sept. 13, Innotech employees, a business partner from Australia, two area contractors and numerous Twinsburg city employees converged on the site for the two-day job. Leading the project were Bill Nichols, Innotech general manager, and Greg Iannone, national sales manager.

“They’re both highly skilled and experienced in the use of decorative concrete products,” Majewski explained. “We also had five of our employees that make the products work side-by-side with them … to see how they are applied by our customers so they can have a better appreciation for the products.”

Schroeder believes the new patios will be quite popular with “Rock the Park” patrons.

“We’re going to have an amazing new concert-viewing location for our ‘Rock the Park’ series in 2012. It just shows how great our local companies are in collaborating with the city,” he said.