Kirk Feldman had his first brush with the business side of entertainment when he became the de facto manager of his college band. But he had no idea that the lessons he learned while trying to negotiate pay with fraternities and bar owners, coupled with his passion for performing, were paving the way for a successful career in theater.

The business of theater, that is. Feldman, principal and executive director of Arts Center Enterprises, is one of a small group behind the redevelopment, restoration and success of the Majestic and Empire Theaters. More theaters are coming under the umbrella of ACE, whose business model is being recognized as one of the most efficient and least costly to public coffers.

It all started with some guitar lessons aimed at keeping a teenaged boy occupied. “I was the son of Foreign Service parents. I was born in Vienna, lived in Mexico until I was nine, in the Washington, D.C. area until I was 14, then in San Juan, Costa Rica,” he remembers. “When we moved to Costa Rica, my parents wanted me to be occupied [with something constructive], so they offered a number of options. I took them up on guitar lessons.”

Feldman moved to Ithaca, New York, for college studies when he was 17. He found a creative environment there that led him to join a New-Wave influenced student band. The job of business manager and negotiator of payments fell to him by default. “I was a business major and an entrepreneur type,” he says. “We played all the time, but towards the spring of my senior year, it became evident that we were not going to be signed to a major recording deal. In January or February, I woke up and said, ‘Hmmm… what am I going to do now?’”

Feldman called an older friend to discuss various ideas he had, and this friend offered him a job selling tickets at the famed Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. “I thought, ‘Hey, I can do that,’ and I went to sell computerized tickets after college,” he says. “I became the box office manager, and ironically, worked under the same manager I work with now at the Majestic.” He worked hard and absorbed everything he could. It meant being on the job at 9 a.m. and getting off at midnight. But top manager, Samuel J. L’Hommedieux, would take the staff out to eat afterwards, and they would laugh and talk for another hour or so. Then it was home, sleep, and back at work.

“The place ran on young, cheap labor, and I learned more there than I would have in any graduate school,” Feldman says. “I learned more than you can imagine.”

He left that job to work for L’Hommedieux in Atlanta, managing a 1,000-person capacity live music bar. Peter Frampton, the Satellites and REM are a few of the acts that passed through the doors in the year he worked there.

Then, his old manager from the Warner Theater, David Anderson, called him to come work on the restoration of the Majestic Theater. “In July 1983, I was young and single, so I just loaded my car up and drove to San Antonio,” Feldman remembers.

From 1981 through 1986, the Majestic was open, but with the economic downturn of 1986, it was sold to the City of San Antonio. Las Casas Foundation, a local non-profit dedicated to the arts and headed by Joci Strauss, set out to raise $15 million to rebuild the Majestic, then the Majestic stage, then the Empire. “Joci had a vision, and her vision and leadership made it happen,” Feldman says. “And as for us, we knew how to run a theater.” The business model that was years in the formation really clicked during the Majestic renovation, and is still the one ACE uses today.

The Majestic was renovated with donations and cost the city nothing. It brings 250,000 people into downtown each year. Feldman and his partners— including Anderson, Gary Markowitz and senior partner Allen Becker—knew where to spend renovation funds to get the most for the money. “We put it into technical components and public areas, because that is what works,” Feldman says. “And we know how to operate theaters. Shows like Lion King, Wicked, and Phantom of the Opera play four to six weeks here, and are a regional draw. That is important.”

Today, the Majestic and Empire Theaters are owned by the City of San Antonio, but the entertainment there is scheduled, managed and operated by ACE. Unlike other municipally owned entertainment venues, the two theaters still cost taxpayers nothing. The city reaps the economic impact of suburban dollars being spent downtown. But as Feldman points out, it is the regional draw of many shows that really help the city with an infusion of money.

“People from outside the immediate region come for entertainment in the theater, but usually stay to do other fun things, while the city reaps the economic benefit,” Feldman says. Tracking software used to determine how many people from outside a 100-mile radius come to the city for these shows indicates that the travelers are worth millions of dollars in spending to the city.

It is a simple business model— redevelopment, restoration, and the resumption of operations—but it works. So well, in fact, that ACE is managing the Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans. The firm was successful in its bid to operate the 2,100-seat theater in a profitable manner. ACE also owns and operates the Sanger Theater in New Orleans. That theater is being restored in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and is to open again in 2011.

ACE is in negotiations to take that business model and use it to rehabilitate the former Loew’s Kings Theater in Brooklyn, New York. Feldman says the rehabilitation of vintage theaters into modern performing arts facilities has seen a renaissance the past 20 years. San Antonio’s Majestic and Empire Theater projects were at the cutting edge of the trend, he notes.

Discussing his business ventures and adventures, while sitting in the Empire Theater, Feldman is comfortable with his chosen path, but is still excited about what tomorrow will bring; he’s still willing to take a risk. He didn’t know that managing theaters would be his life’s work when he loaded his car and headed for Texas 26 years ago. Nor did he know he would meet his wife Suzie, marry in 1996, and have a family, including daughter Anne Marie, 16, and son Max, six.

And, he still gets to perform for an audience, though not at fraternity parties or bars anymore. “We go to First Presbyterian Church, and I play guitar for Children’s Church,” Feldman says. “So, I still play.”