The framed poster above Bill Kerasiotis' desk is a reminder of a family heavily involved in Vancouver's nightlife scene, including what was once Vancouver's hippest nightclub. It also reminds its owner of the impermanence of treasured spaces.
Kerasiotis' first nightclub job was at the venue in the poster, Luv-a-Fair. He was 19 years old and fresh from graduating from Prince of Wales Secondary School when his father, John Kerasiotis, gave him the opportunity to be in the family's business and help out with a wide range of tasks.
"Luv-a-Fair was very alternative. It wasn't like Richards on Richards or other Top 40 clubs. It was black with chain-link fences and it played alternative rock and roll," Kerasiotis recalled.
"I learned how things worked in the industry, how to work with people and about financial management."
Luv-a-Fair closed in 2003 and the family sold the land to a developer to build a condominium tower. Other family-owned nightclubs, such as Graceland, faced similar fates as Vancouver's downtown south neighbourhood evolved into a swath of tall towers.
The family still owns nightclubs, though it has diversified its holdings in the last few years by opening retail liquor stores and getting into the event-organizing business.
Each nightclub, pub and store that the family owns has a slightly different set of principals, sometimes including non-family investors.
The byzantine nature of each club's ownership structure makes divvying profits complicated.
Kerasiotis is most commonly associated with a company legally known as This Is Blueprint but commonly referred to simply as Blueprint. It was created in January when he and his younger brother, Chris Kerasiotis, merged their Adelphia Group with Alvaro Prol’s Blueprint Events.
Kerasiotis' youngest brother, Staci Kerasiotis, also works at Blueprint but is not a partner.
Blueprint owns a majority stake in nightclubs such as:
- Celebrities;
- The Venue; and
- The Caprice.
It also has a minority stake in nightclub Shine and majority stake in pubs such as:
- Charles Bar on West Cordova Street;
- Pivo Public House on Abbott Street;
- Dover Arms on Denman Street; and
- Colony Bar on West Broadway.
Its majority-owned beer and wine stores are:
- West End Liquor Store;
- Burrard Liquor Store; and
- Crosstown Liquor Store.
The shift to focus on event organizing is a way to capitalize on the company's other business assets.
Blueprint often hosts events at its venues while promoting those events through banners and pamphlets available at the family's liquor stores.
"Direction and vision is what happens in this office," Kerasiotis said, in a small boardroom in the 56-year-old Electra Building on Burrard Street.
The air conditioning is inexplicably on full blast so, despite sun shining through the windows, the room is chilly.
Kerasiotis jokes that it is the unpredictable air conditioning that makes him want to move Blueprint's 1,800-square-foot head office from the iconic building that used to be BC Hydro's headquarters.
The real reason he wants to move into larger digs in Gastown by the end of the year is because the company is expanding.
In March, Blueprint staged the third annual Seasons Electronic Music Festival. Events took place at Celebrities, the Caprice and Shine and then culminated with a large show at the Pacific Coliseum headlined by well-known Scottish DJ Calvin Harris.
Kerasiotis said future electronic music festivals are likely, as are events at BC Place similar to the one on December 26, when Blueprint Events teamed up with Live Nation to host what was billed as the largest electronica dance party ever held in western Canada.
Deadmau5 and others played to an estimated 14,000 people on the stadium's floor.
"Electronica events are what we do best, but we're starting to diversify into hosting events with other kinds of music," Kerasiotis said.
"We're going to start doing things such as having dinner packages where we have something at a pub and then something at a club and it is all cross-promoted in our retail stores."
Industry veterans say that, much like his late father, Kerasiotis has the business savvy to recognize opportunities.
"He's a chip off the old block because his dad really knew what he was doing and was a very astute business operator," said Granville Entertainment Group principal Blaine Culling, who was a good friend of Kerasiotis' father.
"I remember Bill when he was a kid. He was with his dad and John would say, 'One day he's going to be running all this.'"
Culling, whose company owns several Granville Street businesses including the Roxy nightclub and Doolin's Irish Pub, got to know Kerasiotis better in the past decade.
The two have often been in meetings with city officials discussing how Granville Street would evolve into what is now known as the Granville Entertainment District.
"One thing I like about Bill is that he sees himself as being here for a long time into the future," Culling said.
Indeed, Vancouver is the only home Kerasiotis has ever known. He grew up in Kitsilano and still lives in the neighbourhood, which historically had a large Greek immigrant population.
Kerasiotis helps out by being part of a fundraising committee for the Hellenic Community of Vancouver. Friends in the Greek community, such as Metropolitan Fine Printers president Nikos Kallas, praise him for being reliable.
"He's a man of his word and he's capable," Kallas told BIV. "He has taken on a big responsibility to oversee the family business. He's done a great job diversifying the company."
Outside work, family time is key. Kerasiotis is married with two young children and tries to spend as much time as he can with them.
He also plays hockey, and he has recently gotten more into cycling.
"I'm a bit like my father. He kept a low profile."
"He had multiple businesses and, coming from a small town in Greece, he did well in his career. But generally our family is pretty quiet."
