[This article appears in the current Sept./Oct. 2020 issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.]
We’re in the middle of a pandemic, and America’s economy is in tatters. Maine tourism, a vital industry in the state, has been particularly hard-hit due to strict restrictions on visitors over the summer. Yet somehow, gay Kennebunkport-based hotelier, real estate powerhouse and serial entrepreneur Tim Harrington is still able to do what he does best: Stay positive—and stay focused on building new ideas for a brighter future.
“I’m an eternal optimist,” says Harrington, a Maine mogul who employs over 800 people across a variety of business ventures. “That’s the true definition of an entrepreneur.”
It’s also an attitude that has served Harrington very well over the course of a storied career. Today, he’s founding partner of the Kennebunkport Resort Collection, an eclectic portfolio of elegant-cool hotels and restaurants that have been defining contemporary, casual luxury in the tony, tourist-friendly seacoast town just 10 miles north of gay-friendly Ogunquit.
Harrington has been moving, shaking and making smart deals for a very long time. In fact, the Lexington, Massachusetts native launched his first commercial-leasing project when he was still a teenager: He cobbled together $500 to rent out the basement of a candy store, divided it into 15 workspaces, and leased each one for $200.
By the time he was 20, Harrington had already been made a partner in a Boston real estate company, and he dove headfirst into years of hard work as a shopping center investor and developer. He was driven, he says, by the desire to build a stronger financial foothold for his family; his father died when he was a child, and his mother faced all the attendant challenges of raising four sons on her own. His privileged life today is a far cry from what he knew growing up, he says.
Today, Harrington is proudly out in business sectors that tend to attract more traditional, straight-laced types, and he’s imbued the Kennebunkport Resort Collection with his own sensibility: inclusive, refined but not stuffy, and sprinkled with dashes of humor and whimsy.
Consider “Use Me,” the brand of hand sanitizer that Harrington quickly developed for the COVID era at Batson River Brewing & Distilling, the craft beer and spirits maker he cofounded. The distillery reopens its tasting room on September 10, but in the meanwhile, it’s coupled a booze-and-pizza takeout program with cranking out sanitizer to sell, give to police and fire departments, and provide through the food pantry that’s recently taken over Vinegar Hill Music Theatre, another venue Harrington owns.
In fact, he’s been innovating all his businesses to adapt to the current normal. Granted, the Cottages at Cabot Cove, purchased by Harrington in 2005 and the first entry in his collection of hotels, were already tailor-made for socially distant getaways; the property is comprised of 16 separate units, each outfitted by a different Maine-based interior designer. But Harrington has also added new overnight options to Sandy Pines Campground, a rustic-cool retreat where guests can now snooze inside a retro-chic Airstream or VW bus that’s been outfitted with modern amenities.
Then there’s the Yachtsman Hotel & Marina Club, which just partnered with preppy footwear brand Sperry to give guests their own boat shoes—perfect for wearing to the property’s new “Yacht Rock Bar,” a bow-shaped, alfresco cocktail setup. Over at Hidden Pond, an assortment of boutique bungalows tucked into 60 acres of Maine woods, new “treetop lodges” have been debuted, as well as a special suite created in partnership with menswear designer Todd Snyder.
There’s good stuff ahead, too: Kennebunkport Resort Collection was recently acquired by EOS Investors, a NYC-based firm, though Harrington remains a partner and creative director. He’s about to close a deal to purchase and renovate the Claremont Hotel on Maine’s resort-filled Mount Desert Island. In the spring, he’ll open a companion property to the Tides Beach Club in Kennebunkport. And he’s in the process of turning a 240,000-square-foot mill in Biddeford, Maine—a young and artsy city poised to become the “Brooklyn of Maine,” says Harrington—into the Lincoln: a luxury hotel and residential building with a rooftop swimming pool, Batson River bar, and another location of Quest Fitness, the health center Harrington first established in Kennebunk. And that’s just scratching the surface.
“People think I’m crazy, buying hotels when hotels are closed,” says Harrington, laughing. “But for an entrepreneur, this is just one more challenge. We’ll get through it, and with humor.”
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