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Inside the vision for the Holland Hotel
Gil Bartee and his new ownership group want to pattern Alpine’s Holland Hotel after the boutique hotels and inns scattered throughout the United States and Europe. Bartee announced plans to purchase the hotel two weeks ago. The vision for the Holland Hotel, Bartee said, includes re-creating the opulence of the past. “Trost [architectural firm] hotels were touted as a virtual fairyland with exotic Spanish decorations, bellhops garbed in Spanish costumes, mazes of chrysanthemums, dahlias, and bluebonnets throughout the lobby.” “Plans are to renovate the guest rooms, lease the existing restaurant to a first-class restaurant operation with fine dining in an elegant and relaxed atmosphere,” Bartee said. Plans also include a spacious gift shop-gallery to feature an ice cream bar, fine chocolates, wine tasting and a coffee bar, he said. The existing brewery will be expanded to include Gillary’s Hay Maker Saloon, located in the existing Rio Grande Banquet Room. “The Hay Maker Saloon was one of the first taverns in Alpine, dating back to the late 1800s. And Gillary’s was my first tavern located on the waterfront in Bristol, Rhode Island,” Bartee said. Bartee is a friendly, talkative guy who is genuinely interested in everything around him. The term “Renaissance Man” seems made for him. He’s been an anthropologist, an inner city developer. And he moves so fast. He has the proverbial laundry list of things he wants to do to the Holland. I asked him how many years it would take to complete his vision. Years? Shoot, he’s talking weeks, maybe months. “We’ll have [the purchase] closed within 60-90 days,” he said. “and the day that we close, we’ll have three crews start working immediately: “One, doing the Hay Maker Bar and Grill, which will be where the Rio Grande Room is right now. “Another will be working on the restaurant, which will include the gift shop to have a more flowable kitchen and wait area. “And another will be the exterior crew - actually two crews, one working on the windows, while another will be working on the rooftop patio.” And then, because the ideas were speeding through his head so fast, Bartee went off on a tangent and started talking about plans that call for building four penthouses adjacent to the patio. Not just any penthouses, but guest suites that include hot tubs and personal decks and views of the stars and mountains. And he barely gets those words out before he’s talking about the telescope that will be on the patio. Oh, and he says, “did I mention the big movie screen we’ll have up there that will be run by the folks at the Marfa Film Festival.” But remember, he adds, “we’re also developing plans for a third-floor patio off the back of the building.” See what I mean about moving fast, talking fast? So, how soon will it take to get all this up and running? “Here’s what I want,” Bartee said. “Hay Maker three for four weeks max; rooftop patio six weeks; windows two months; and as the windows are finished, a painting crew will follow. “In fact, we’ve already engaged an engineer who is drawing up specs for the positioning of all the electric and other utilities off the patio so we can bid out that whole process. “We’ll have the specs within 30 days for most of the projects,” he said. “And we want to have the bids awarded within 30 days after that. … We’re going to have a fixed-bid, fixed-time frame bid process. … And we want everyone to bid - local, other parts of West Texas, etc.” I asked Bartee if the hotel structure can handle all the additions. “Easy,” he said. “When they built the building, the floors were 17 inches of concrete with beams under them. I had an architect tell me, ‘You could land a B-52 on that.’ “Believe me,” he said, “we’ll have Thanksgiving dinner” in new surroundings. “And we’re not going to close the hotel for one single minute to get this done. “Throughout the [hotel],” Bartee said, “a sense of style and customer pampering will be maintained at a price that won’t blow your budget. The hotel rooms and suites will be tasteful in their d/cor and amenities.” Bartee said Ray Hendryx, the son of former owner Gene Hendryx, has offered his assistance to the legacy of the Historic Holland Hotel by providing photos, books and an oral history of the hotel. The hotel’s many ghost stories will also be documented. He bought the first house for $25,000 (editor’s note: I don’t think they’ll let you in the Newport city limits these days for less than $300,000), fixed it up, sold it. “I lived in the basement because I couldn’t afford to live in the apartments I converted in the house,” he said. In fact, he had to add on a combo toilet/shower to the basement, the description of which does not sound appetizing. In that way, Bartee became one of the gentrification pioneers that have since swept the nation. He also dabbled as a shopkeeper, converting an old fishing shed into a shop that specialized in Haitian art and jewelry, a passion that he picked up on one of his anthropology forays. (Editor’s note, Part 2: Get Bartee to tell you the stories about the wild-haired real estate investor, or, my favorite, the former manager and former drummer from the Lovin’ Spoonful, who opened art shops in Newport at the same time.) After making and spending a fortune or two in the Rhode Island area, Bartee wound up in the Dallas area, managing projects for Chevron. Dallas is where he met his wife, Sue. Then he met the people behind the Reata Restaurant, Sierra la Rana and JMK Holdings - and several other ventures. Now he splits his time almost exclusively between Fort Worth and Alpine. Bartee is also working closely with Mike King, who wants to bring passenger air service to the Big Bend. “While working with clients at Sierra la Rana,” Bartee said, “people would almost always ask two things: How do I get there, and what’s there to do. “We’re working on both those things,” he said. Inside the vision for the Holland Hotel mikeperry@alpineavalanche.com Much of government is the setting of priorities. We have neither the money nor the time to get everything done at once. Does Jade have time to relax? Big Bend People Jade Keith piled up thousands of miles, thousands of smiles, a plethora of photo ops, untold numbers of banquet dinners and tons of new friends. |
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