MGM’s Jason Shkorupa to lead Allegiant’s Sunseeker Resort food
A subsidiary of Las Vegas-based Allegiant Travel Co. has hired a longtime MGM Resorts International food and beverage executive to head the food operation of the company’s planned Sunseeker Resort in Florida.
Jason Shkorupa is a 26-year MGM food-and-beverage employee. Before taking the top position at the MGM Grand in 2013, he led operations at Luxor for four years, and he had worked at Park MGM (formerly the Monte Carlo) and Excalibur before that.
He’ll lead F&B operations at Sunseeker, a 22-acre, $600 million hotel and condominium resort and marina in Port Charlotte on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
At the MGM Grand, Shkorupa oversaw 33 food, bar and lounge outlets and entertainment theaters, multiple nightclubs, the MGM Grand Garden Arena and the property’s 900,000-square-foot convention center.
He opened more than 80 venues at MGM properties between 2005 and 2018.
“Jason is one of the premier talents in the hospitality food and beverage industry today,” Micah Richins, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Sunseeker Resorts, said in a release announcing the appointment.
“His operations expertise has brought success to large and complex organizations, and he has developed an array of acclaimed original dining concepts, including working with a who’s who of celebrity chefs, from Wolfgang Puck and Masaharu Morimoto to Emeril Lagasse,” Richins said.
Allegiant currently offers flights to seven Florida destinations, including Punta Gorda Airport near the planned Sunseekers site.
The company has said the resort would open in 2020.
Charlotte County commissioners last month delayed action on a site plan review of the resort because it didn’t include a public harbor walk path that Allegiant officials said would be a part of the plan.
The company said the reason the plan didn’t include the path is because planners are awaiting word from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about how far back from the harbor’s waterline they can build.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.
