Carpenter to manage Inn assets

By Katie Gonzalez, The Dartmouth Staff

Published on Tuesday, April 13, 2010

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College officials have decided to employ an outside agency — real estate firm Carpenter & Company — to serve as the asset manager of the Hanover Inn, Senior Vice President Steven Kadish wrote in a letter to Hanover Inn employees on Monday. College officials hope the appointment will allow the College to focus its financial resources on research and education instead of subsidizing the Inn, which has lost money over the past few years, Kadish said in an interview with The Dartmouth.

College administrators are also evaluating hotel management firms to oversee the daily operations of the Inn, Kadish said. Kadish was unable to comment on the number of firms currently being considered, but expects that a decision will be announced “60 or so days from now,” he said.

Kadish added that he anticipates union members employed at the Inn will not be negatively affected by these changes, and will be able to renew their contracts under any new management firm.

“Our full expectation is that the employees of the Inn will be offered positions by the management if we go that way, and it is our full expectation that there will be a union at the Inn,” Kadish said. “The major difference would be that [Hanover Inn employees] would no longer be employees of Dartmouth — they will be employees at the management company.”

Union members are concerned that any new external management would be an attempt for College officials to “get out of paying benefits to employees,” according to Earl Sweet, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 560.

“We’re concerned about the fact that they think they don’t have to recognize us as employees of Dartmouth College once [a new management firm] takes over,” Sweet said. “They’re saying we’re going to have to negotiate with new management people, but if the College doesn’t sell the place, we still are employees of the College.”

Carpenter & Company, which was incorporated by Richard Friedman ’63 in 1973, was one of “seven or eight” firms that submitted a proposal to increase the efficiency of the Hanover Inn, according to Kadish’s letter.

The proposal included a plan for a renovation of “rooms and the food and beverages services” to make the Inn more profitable, Kadish told The Dartmouth.

“It was a decision made on merits, but it’s a great plus to have a Dartmouth [alumnus] who knows this place and loves this place,” he said. “But the decision to go with Carpenter was based on the merits in terms of the concepts they were proposing.”

Sweet questioned the motives of the administration in appointing a company with such close ties to the Dartmouth community.

“We feel a conflict of interest even because it’s an alumni,” Sweet said. “They own the company. You have to wonder what the heck’s going on there.”

The union will continue to voice its concerns to Dartmouth administrators in their weekly Tuesday meetings, Sweet said.

College officials continue to consider hiring a hospitality company to assume the day-to-day management responsibilities of the Inn. Administrators are “looking at some of the same firms that applied to be the [asset manager]” during the process, according to Kadish.

“We’re now pretty far along in the selection of who we would like to be the day-to-day manager,” Kadish said.

The College plans to “work with the union” in the transition to a new management arrangement, should administrators decide to hire a management company, but the union will not be directly involved in selecting a new firm, according to Kadish.

“The selection process of the management company should be perceived that way — as something that the College would do and something that the union would not be involved with,” Kadish said.

Carpenter & Company — based in Cambridge, Mass. — has significant experience renovating hotels in close proximity to academic institutions, such as the Charles Hotel adjacent to Harvard University, according Kadish’s letter.

Hanover Inn General Manager Carl Pratt could not be reached for comment by press time.