<p>The historic Edgartown hotel has been sold to Upland Capital Corporation, a Boston-based asset management and real estate investment firm founded by seasonal resident Bernard Chiu.</p>
The historic Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown has been sold to Upland Capital Corporation, a Boston-based asset management and real estate investment firm founded by Edgartown seasonal resident Bernard Chiu.
The sale closed Wednesday afternoon. The purchase price was $30 million, according to land records. The seller is Scout Harbor View Property LLC, a partnership group. According to town records, the assessed value of the hotel and associated condominium properties is $24.2 million.
Mr. Chiu, a former seasonal resident of Nantucket, has owned a home in Edgartown for the past three years and was a summer visitor for many years before that.
“It’s a lovely property,” he said, speaking to the Gazette by phone Thursday. “I have a passion and love for that. I live in the neighborhood, I love the area. It’s a very iconic hotel and you can’t get a better location for a beautiful property in the United States.”
Mr. Chiu said he plans immediate improvements in customer service and guest experience. He also plans to renovate the 127-year-old resort property beginning this fall.
“I would like to renovate the hotel and bring it back to what it was, and what it should be,” Mr. Chiu said. “We’re excited to do that.”
The new owner said part of the hotel will be closed when renovations begin, but part will remain open.
He said he plans no changes in the name of the hotel or the attributes that make it special, but hopes to elevate its reputation as a premier hotel in the northeastern United States.
“We would never change it, it’s such a beautiful name,” said Mr. Chiu. “It’s all about love and passion. I’m so proud to own it and also to do all the work to bring it to the next level. I think it will benefit the town, the neighborhood and the Island.”
Mr. Chiu is a Hong Kong native who has been a United States citizen for more than 30 years, according to a biography on his company’s website.
He founded Upland Capital to manage his family’s assets and real estate investments. Before that, he founded Duracraft Corporation, a home comfort appliance manufacturing and marketing company. He later became chairman of First Act Inc., a company that sells musical products.
Home to 130 rooms and two restaurants, the hotel stands at the end of North Water street, overlooking the Edgartown lighthouse.
Known as the grande dame of Island resort properties in its heyday, the hotel is steeped in Vineyard history. It was once a favorite of well-heeled New Yorkers who came to stay for the summer, enjoying a pristine view of Nantucket Sound and Cape Pogue from the wide verandas that remain a signature feature of the property today.
The hotel ushered in a new era for the town when it opened in 1891. Founders were Dr. Thomas Walker, a leading physician in Edgartown, and Luther T. Townshend of Watertown, a summer visitor. Each pledged a subscription of $5,000 to raise capital for the construction of the hotel, which was faced with 100,000 cedar shingles imported from New Brunswick.
In 1965 the hotel was bought by the late Robert Carroll, a prominent Edgartown businessman, and his partner Allan Jones, a former state senator and Cape Cod businessman. At the time it was part of the Treadway Inn chain.
In 1986, Mr. Carroll sold the hotel to Robert Welch and Mr. Jones’s son Stephen C. Jones of Iyanough Management in Hyannis.
The hotel last changed hands in 2006, when it was sold to Scout Real Estate Capital LLC, a Nantucket-based investor group. The partnership has undergone several changes since then. The 2006 purchase price for the hotel was $32.5 million.
The new owner has retained Scout Hotel Resort Management to continue as the management company.
Comments
Congrats to all involved, and
Charlie VHCongrats to all involved, and to Mr. Chiu. Can't wait to see the renovations take shape, please considering removing about 50% of the ghosts there, last time I stayed there were too many ghosts. I like some ghosts, but not that many.
I am heartened to here that
Douglas F Korves AIA Always on Island.I am heartened to here that the hotel has been sold to Mr, Chiu, a residenrt with passion for the property and the sands on the Vineyard running through his viens.
Restoring this property to its grandeur is not copying the cliches forms and revival details so prevelant and computer drawn in every new large home and swim, tennis, or golf club on this island in the last 20 years.
The solutions come from the building itself and the values of Edgartown. The Harbor View has a way "it wants to be". The answers come from a sense of how the building sits on its site, and is perceived from across the harbor, and percueved from the street. Not so much the building but it's energy and activity. That spirit is captured in that twilight photograph shimmering across the water.
Most importantly, like trying to improve oneself, it is an internal job. The location, size, functions and menus of the hotel and its food and beverage used require a thorough change that we all welcome that can only come from an individual impressario owner like a the great restraunteurs or hoteliers.
To have that dark bar (its customers turned away from the water) and grille buried in a windowless tunnel without a spiritual connection to the veranda and view, is like going to church in a basement.
One might consider less dining room, relocating the large sitting-lounge which is actually check in and waiting. The new HarborView should be organic and fresh as farm to table. It should feel authentic and not ripped out of the pages of Architectural Digest.
Walk on Lighthouse Beach and look back. This grand lady will speak to you.
If the Gazette would create a page or portal, tell Mr, Chiu, your feelings. After all, this is Edgartown's Copely, Biltmore, Waldorf, Plaza, Breakers, Oceanview, or perhaps: Our White House (sorry Dr, Fisher).
Sorry to say that this hotel
To Late To Much Change Martha's vineyardSorry to say that this hotel changed years ago. It's not coming back to it's grandeur because the people over the last 15 years have ruined that. They ruined the back bar, the original restaurant has long been decimated to just what you describe, a cookie cutter you could be anywhere restaurant. That old restaurant is gone, not coming back. The way we were treated as year round residents with a discount dining card is gone, the same old management company remains which took little care of the place the last few years and made it's shabby chic degrade to a shabby look should be ousted from that location. The management company makes it the cookie cutter hotel it currently is and will remain. Bring back Jim Moore as the F and B manager and we'll talk more about the way things used to be run, with a heart.
I was a bellhop,
B rad EdgartownI was a bellhop, nightwatchman, switchboard operator and busboy there in the 80's. You are right about the ghosts.
Tell us more about the ghosts
Marty EdgartownTell us more about the ghosts!!
Best Wishes!
Anne Rittershofer Neumann Cincinnati, OHBest Wishes!
Ghosts not only still reside
Dick AquinnahGhosts not only still reside at the hotel but have been blown to the four winds, from Aquinnah to Auckland and Zack's Cliffs to Zanzibar.
WOW! Ghosts? Really? I guess
rose m. washington, dcWOW! Ghosts? Really? I guess they must have lived only in the actual hotel as I worked there the summer of '77 and lived in the staff quarters behind the hotel. I never experienced meeting/hearing a lost soul and none of my friends employed there spoke of spirits either. Perhaps it was far more enjoyable to spook the actual guests, providing them with countless stories to return home with.
As long as I can still sit on
Sophie Thonsen RiceAs long as I can still sit on the porch have a drink on a summer evening and look out at that lighthouse. Not to mention an early morning cup of coffee and those killer sunsets!
Good job of reporting by
ken m edgartown ma. & sanibel fl.Good job of reporting by Gazette reporter Steve Myrick. The original article said "purchase price was not disclosed" Myrick dug the $30 million price out independently.
It's a business like
charlie callahan so boston/edgartownIt's a business like everything else on the island. It's so expensive to maintain a business that no one cares about aesthetics anymore. They mean nothing,it's all about money. The old vineyard is gone and it's not coming back
Need to keep the locals and
Chris Issac New York NyNeed to keep the locals and day trippers out and leave it to the guest experience. The bars are always full of local drunks that ruin the experience.
They’re not promoting family
Ron DiGiacomo DelawareThey’re not promoting family values at the new HV any longer. Check their Twitter account carefully. I was blocked for saying, “nice family values you’re promoting.” I can only wonder if the person in charge of social media is aligned with Mr. Chiu, or has their own agenda.
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