The personal parallels are few and far between, and his portfolio is only budding, but hotel developer Tim O’Reilly seems to be traveling a career trail blazed by the late John Q. Hammons.
Hammons, a former junior high school teacher and Springfield-area real estate developer, began his career in the hotel industry in 1958, when he worked with Roy Winegardner to purchase their first 10 properties under the Holiday Inn franchise. Over the next 50-plus years, the often blunt but affable workhorse developed 210 hotel properties across 40 states. At the time of his death in May 2013, John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts managed 78 hotels with brands including Embassy Suites, Marriott, Radisson and Holiday Inn, and the company employed more than 8,500 associates in 24 states.
O’Reilly Hospitality Management LLC owner O’Reilly, like Hammons, is finding success in a latter career as a hotel developer.
O’Reilly, whose family started Springfield-based O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (Nasdaq: ORLY), has practiced law since 1995 and co-founded O’Reilly, Jensen and Preston LLC in 1999. He acquired the former Hawthorn Park Hotel at Glenstone Avenue and Kearney Street in 2006 and parlayed that redevelopment project into a portfolio of seven hotels, including the Hilton Garden Inn and Holiday Inn flags, and four restaurants.
This month, O’Reilly opened a TownPlace Suites by Marriott, adjacent to Mercy Hospital Springfield, and unveiled plans for a Fairfield Inn on North Glenstone Avenue. In addition to the Fairfield, his 14th project announcement, the 7-year-old company also is developing hotels in Texas and Arizona.
O’Reilly said he has great respect for Hammons’ company and the man. When he travels, O’Reilly said hotel industry peers are aware of his hometown.
“If I’m anywhere in the country and talk about Springfield, Mo., people remember John Q. Hammons before they remember anything else, if they’re in the hotel industry,” O’Reilly said. “He put Springfield on the map as far as the resort world goes.”
O’Reilly’s growth is due, in part, to his ability to acquire a talent pool JQH Hotels & Resorts generated.
Scott Tarwater joined Springfield-based O’Reilly Hospitality in June 2011 after working over 20 years with JQH Hotels. The vice president left JQH in late 2010, along with several members of the design team, following Jacquie Dowdy’s rise to CEO. Within months of Tarwater arriving at O’Reilly, JQH Hotels architects Steve Minton and David Horst and four JQH managers also joined O’Reilly.
“I feel like I knew him because several of the people who work for me were very close to him and knew a lot about him. Steve Minton, Bob Fugazi and Brian Inman at the DoubleTree all spent an incredible amount of time with Mr. Hammons,” O’Reilly said.
Regrettably, O’Reilly said he never met Hammons.
O’Reilly said he’s never entered into any discussions with JQH officials, but there is one set of plans Hammons shelved that he’d like to see dusted off – a large, upscale hotel that connects to the Springfield Expo Center. “I strongly believe the right (flagship) hotel in the right style and the right scale … could be incredibly successful,” O’Reilly said.
The 1.7-acre vacant lot next to the Expo was transferred to the city in December 2011 for $1 after Hammons and company failed to develop a 200-room Embassy Suites Hotel on the property due to lack of financing. In 2007, Hammons entered into an agreement with the city to purchase the land and Jordan Valley Car Park for $7 million, with the intent to construct a convention center hotel on the tract and to sell University Plaza land for development of BKD LLP’s corporate headquarters. That agreement included a buy-back provision if the hotel remained undeveloped.
In 2012, the city, JQH Hotels and the CVB hired Chicago consultancy Hunden Strategic Partner to generate suggestions for increasing convention visitors to the town Hammons put on the map. The Hunden report that resulted advised that a $90 million public-private investment for a hotel, Expo upgrades and development of an entertainment district would generate $1.1 billion in community spending over 25 years.
“In my opinion, it lays out an incredible road map to probably the best economic stimulus the city of Springfield could ever experience,” O’Reilly said of the Hunden report. “Those people who are traveling to spend three or four days at a conference, they’d be here, spending money at restaurants. There is an incredible multiplicative effect from attendees and what they could do for downtown Springfield.”
O’Reilly said he hasn’t talked with officials at JQH Hotels or the city about the Expo land, but he would welcome the idea in the future. “I think something should be done, and hopefully it will,” O’Reilly said. “It would take downtown Springfield to the next level.”
Meanwhile, the budding hotel developer shrugs off any comparisons to Hammons’ legacy.
“I don’t think there are too many parallels at this point,” O’Reilly said. “I have a few small hotels, and he built an empire.”[[In-content Ad]]
