Hotelier John Fitzpatrick bounds into the Residence private members club on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin with a broad smile, a warm handshake and an apology for being late.
He was on a pre-Christmas trip home in advance of US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to Ireland.
Fitzpatrick is a prominent member of Irish-America and a long-time member of the Clinton’s circle.
He has much to smile about. Profits at his two New York hotels rose by 18.5 per cent last year to €3.2 million as the economic recovery continues in the US.
It was his 21st year in business in the city and a fitting coming of age.
Fitzpatrick owns the freehold on his two four-star hotels and estimates they are worth $140 million “and going up”.
The stellar profit performance is all the more impressive when you consider that an additional 6,000 hotel rooms were added to the market in New York last year.
He has also received a tap on the shoulder to become chairman in 2014 of the American Hotel Lodging Association, which represents 55,000 hotels in the US which generate $140 billion in revenue annually from 5 million rooms.
It’s a rare honour for the owner of a small hotel chain in the US.
Fitzpatrick is currently serving a third two-year term as chairman of the Hotel Association of New York City. Not bad for an out-of-towner.
It’s hasn’t been all plain sailing, of course.
Superstorm Sandy in late October threatened to blow a big hole in his business plan but, like 9/11 and various other crises over the two decades he has done business in Manhattan, Fitzpatrick survived.
“It was a disaster operationally,” he says. “Some hotels had no hot water or heat for five days. Subways were a mess.
“The biggest problem was deliveries. Simple things like our laundry, getting sheets and towels delivered. People were great about not having their sheets cleaned every day but after a certain time you have to change them. Then the companies were ripping you off.”
Fitzpatrick’s regular laundry provider was flooded, forcing him into the arms of an alternative company.
“They knew we were in trouble. We were getting sheets cleaned at 80c a sheet and they were charging us $8 a sheet.”
His Manhattan hotel between 56th and 57th street and the Grand Central on East 44th Street survived the worst of the storm and became a refuge for those in the city without power who were desperate to charge their phones and computers.
“That’s how tough it was. Then the [New York] marathon came in the middle of it. [Calling it off] was the right thing to do but if we’d had more notice it would have been better.”
Fitzpatrick praises his staff for rising to the occasion. Many of them made the journey into Manhattan before the storm hit and hunkered down for the duration.
“The ones who came in on Thursday didn’t get home till Sunday. There were no subways. We had to put them up in rooms, which put more pressure on the hotels.”
Fitzpatrick’s two hotels in New York are famous with the travelling Irish.
They are like a rasher hajj for hungry Paddies in search of a traditional full Irish in the Big Apple.
The Fitzpatricks are renowned for their traditional personal service.
He has a number of Irish staff working the front of house, which he believes gives him an edge on his rivals when it comes to hospitality.
“Somebody once said to me there’s more Irish working in this hotel than there are in Ireland,” he says.
Hosting Ian Paisley
His most senior lieutenants are also Irish: chief financial officer Peter Kidd, area manager Shane Cookman and Patrick Leyden, who runs the Grand Central Hotel.
“I have the best team around me that I’ve ever had. A few years ago I couldn’t have left the hotels for more than a couple of days without worrying about them.”
Fitzpatrick has hosted the three most recent Irish presidents and numerous taoisigh and ministers.
His hotels have also become a popular place to lodge for Northern Ireland ministers of both persuasions and British government officials.
He recalls hosting former first minister Ian Paisley, who now carries the title of Lord Bannside.
Fitzpatrick had become friendly with his son Ian jnr, who recommended to his father that he stay in one of the Irish hotels on his first visit to New York as first minister.
“Ian jnr rang me and said I’ve one request. I said, ‘Don’t worry I know what it is and it’ll be flying’.”
It was a request that the union jack (or union flag as everyone likes to call it now) would be flying outside the hotel.
Fitzpatrick was at the door to greet Paisley when he arrived by car.
“He got out of the car, looked up and said to me, ‘My son says you’re okay’,” Fitzpatrick recalls.
Paisley then walked in to the foyer of the hotel where half a dozen Derry women were gathered.
“They said to him, ‘What are you doing here’, and he said, ‘Why wouldn’t I be here? I’m Irish’.”
Born in Dublin in 1962, Fitzpatrick studied hotel management at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas before working for a time in Chicago.
“My dad loved gambling and my mother used to say that the only reason he sent me to college in Vegas was so he could visit me.”
He returned home to work in the family business – they had three hotels, Killiney, Shannon Shamrock and Silver Springs in Cork – before being sent to New York by his father in 1991 to run the Manhattan hotel, which they’d just acquired.
The Fitzpatrick’s venture into the US hotel business was backed in the early days by Dermot Desmond’s NCB and ACT Venture Capital.
American-Ireland Fund
Fitzpatrick is a US citizen and has an honorary OBE from the queen for his efforts in the peace process in Northern Ireland, where he has been involved in charity work.
“I’m very proud of that,” he says.
Fitzpatrick is on the boards of the American-Ireland Fund and the Ireland-US Council and was part of the finance campaign team for Hillary Clinton when she ran successfully for senator of New York and was unsuccessful in her bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in 2008.
He had supported her husband, President Bill Clinton, before that.
He has retained links with Clinton since she became secretary of state, a position she is about to relinquish.
Fitzpatrick is confident that, her health permitting, Clinton will run for president next time.
“I’m telling you here and now she will run for president. This is my prediction.
“I’m a big fan of the Clintons but it’s not because I’m Irish or a Democrat but for what they have done for Northern Ireland. There wouldn’t have been peace in Northern Ireland without the Clintons.”
Fitzpatrick has been busy closer to home. He recently bought a penthouse apartment in south Dublin for a fraction of the price that would have been sought in the Celtic Tiger years.
He’s also been looking around for a hotel acquisition in Dublin city.
Fitzpatrick tabled an offer for the old Berkeley Court in Ballsbridge after the banks that now control the former Seán Dunne property sought tenders to operate that hotel and its sister property, the Ballsbridge Hotel, for five years.
“With the Berkeley Court, I wanted it if I could have the option to buy it.
“I was reluctant to bid too high given that it was a short-term lease of five years and truthfully, I was more interested in having an option to purchase the hotel at the end of the lease. But that option wasn’t available.”
Memory lane
He also took a look at the Shannon Shamrock in Bunratty but was saddened by its current dilapidated state.
It was a trip down memory lane in many ways, given that the hotel was once part of his family’s hotel portfolio and was run for a time by the eldest son of Eithne and Paddy Fitzpatrick.
“We’re not going to do anything stupid. I’m not doing it for sentimental reasons,” he insists.
What about Ashford Castle in Cong, which is on the block for €25 million?
After all, it’s a big hit with Americans, who love the connection with The Quiet Man film.
“It’s a lovely property but it doesn’t fit the profile of the Fitzpatrick hotels,” he says.
Why does he want to buy in Ireland?
“It would be advantageous for us to have a hotel in Dublin because of the amount of business I’m generating from New York.
“I’m selling rooms to Dublin every week. It’s got to be in a city because I’ve got to be able to drive business. It’s corporate business and top leisure business. Another one would be Belfast. I’m getting a lot of business from Northern Ireland.”
He refers business to his sister Eithne, who runs the Fitzpatrick hotel in Killiney, where it all started for the family in 1970.
“She’s doing well. How I know is that I can’t get a room there half the time.”
Family and the thorny issue of succession dominated much of Fitzpatrick’s earlier life and career.
There were five children, of which John, Eithne and Paul – who runs the Morgan and Beacon hotels in Dublin – worked in the hotels.
Their father, Paddy Fitzpatrick, spent a lot of time working on a mechanism to hand over control of the family hotels to the children in a way that would avoid squabbles when he passed away.
In the end, John got the bulk of the shares in the hotels in New York and Chicago with conditions set down for buying out his siblings over time.
Golden rules
In 2006, he got a “fantastic offer” for Chicago and decided to sell the property and exercise his rights to buy out the New York hotels.
“I bought them out and it made me independent,” he says. “It also brought us closer together as a family. I can now go to my sister’s house without talking about the business or anyone wondering if there’s an agenda. I’m much closer to my family now and it’s great.”
His father had three golden rules to doing business, which Fitzpatrick says have guided him over the years.
The first was always be upfront with the banks. “If you see something coming tell them, never surprise a banker,” he says. “You might as well go in and have a plan.”
Second, only deal with Irish banks. “I think that one has gone out the window now, ha, ha.”
Fitzpatrick actually has loans with Bank of Scotland (Ireland) but that was a legacy of its takeover of the former state-owned ICC Bank, where he was a customer.
Third, never, ever sign a personal guarantee. “I’ve always stuck to that,” he says.
With his 50th birthday having passed in October, Fitzpatrick is now pondering the future of his own business.
A workaholic, he has never married and has no children to succeed him in the business.
Chasing partnerships
“My lawyer in New York only rang me about a month ago about this,” he says. “I do hope I will meet someone, but in the meantime I have to put in place a plan.
“God forbid if something happens to me I have to have a plan in place to make sure my key staff are secure. If I marry someone all things change.”
Would he ever consider selling up?
“In the last three or four years people are coming to me chasing partnerships and I’ve turned them all down. I’d hate to put my brand on something if it’s not right.
“I do want an exit somewhere along the way. I don’t want to end up like my father, killing myself in the end.
“I want to expand the brand and if that means some sort of partnership then I might do that if it helps the business. I would like an exit but not today or tomorrow. I’m very happy with what I’m doing.”
CV: John Fitzpatrick
Name: John Fitzpatrick
Age: 50
Lives: New York
Hobbies: Skiing, kite surfing and golf .
Favourite Hotels: Dromoland Castle Hotel, Co Clare, and Corinthia Hotel, London.
Something you might expect: He was voted Irish American of the Year in 2010.
Something that might surprise: He flies helicopters.
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