Business Leaders: Tim Harrington plans next chapter with a new residential park in Biddeford
Photo / Jim Neuger
Tim Harrington.
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Tim Harrington is a Kennebunk-based entrepreneur who started in the hotel world in Kennebunkport almost by accident. He has done many residential redevelopments and was originally in the shopping center business. In the past year, he’s invested in hotel properties in the Kennebunks, Biddeford and on Mount Desert Island.
Harrington wears many hats in the hospitality industry, is a partner with Batson River Brewing & Distilling, partner and creative director of the Kennebunkport Resort Collection and his most recent project is the Lincoln in Biddeford, Salt Cottages in Bar Harbor and the Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor.
Mainebiz: What are your recent accomplishments?
Tim Harrington: We have been busy this last year. Of course, the most exciting is the opening of the Lincoln Hotel in Biddeford. That project has been going on for the last seven years. That was incredibly exciting. Construction happened during COVID, which was challenging and also exciting. It was fun to be over there and just watch after seeing that building vacant for so long, counting work trucks in the parking lot, seeing so many people there and seeing the transformation of that building into the apartments opening first and then the hotel this past fall. That is the most exciting thing from this past year and then before that was the completion of Salt Cottages in Bar Harbor and then the Claremont, which was during COVID. So, it’s been a busy past three years. But it’s not about me — it’s about our team. Nothing works without them.
MB: What is the redevelopment process like?
TH: As a company, we believe that people travel for design, people love beautiful design and people think about it in their own homes. We are a company that cares about that. We have an in-house design team that works with design partners. I love when someone walks in and says that this looks like an Atlantic Hospitality project.
MB: What are some challenges your businesses are facing?
TH: Staffing is a huge issue in the hospitality business that we face statewide. It’s really about workforce and employee housing. That is something that I am deeply involved with right now. You are supposed to bring out-of-state and out-of-the-country workers and the only way to do that is to house them.
MB: Have you done anything outside of Maine?
TH: My background is in shopping centers and most of my properties were in Massachusetts in the Boston area. I have a summer house in Kennebunkport and that is how I started buying properties in Maine. But that was a long time ago. I am a Maine-based real estate investor and every year, my love of Maine gets deeper and my whole family now lives in Maine. During COVID, we treated Maine like a country, moved all over the state and spent time in different parts of the state. Maine is incredible; it offers such a diverse landscape and just so many different experiences which is why I decided to buy in the Acadia area.
MB: What is your business outlook for 2023?
TH: From the hospitality standpoint, it is up, up, up for Maine the demand gets greater every year. People from all over the country have a Maine fantasy and people are traveling more. I am very bullish on Maine and look forward to doing more projects there.
MB: What is next for you? Next project?
TH: We’ll focus on Biddeford some more and up in Acadia as well. One of the projects I can talk about is another residential development down the road from Lincoln. It’s the project called the One Diamond along the Saco River in Biddeford and that will be a large residential project with basically a park. It will be a multi-building construction. It will be a market-rate project that will have many components to it.
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