Jeff Higley voiceover: “Some people call Al Kite Mr. Indianapolis. Others call him a health nut. Many call him a sensible businessman with a nose for deals. But most everyone calls him a hotelier with heart. Kite, the owner of the Conrad Indianapolis, has a unique view of his property from the top down. His home sits atop the 23-story building located in the heart of Indianapolis’s central business district.
“Kite, who grew up in Florida and moved to Indy in the 1960s, enjoys riding the elevators with guests, tidying up when needed and in general acting as ambassador of the 241-room hotel.”
Al Kite: “When I see a guest, and, the first thing I even, I don’t even introduce myself as the owner but I just say hello and how do you like the hotel, and you stay here often or you travel a lot. Just finding out, and just invariably, the comments are just, you know, great. And, you go out of your way to make sure, I do, to say hello to everyone, to great everyone. A lot of them now that are regular guests, they know me. They think, well, rightly so, they think I’m employed here.”
Greg Tinsley, general manager: “Absolutely. It’s a very unique opportunity. I would start with probably the only challenging piece to it is when we do make, we make a lot of change here for the good, both in the physical attribute of the experience, in the behavioral or cultural side of the customer experience, and because Mr. Kite is with us every day, sometimes those aren’t as noticeable, and if he goes away to travel and comes back he will then comment on things he’s noticed that have been changed and I quickly remind him that we’re constantly striving to change things and to uplift his property but he’s with us every day so he quite often does not notice some of the many of the subtle changes that we make.”
Executive Chef Michelle Matiya: "Yeah, so, this is the first hotel that I’ve worked in where my owner has actually been on property with me. And I think my first thought, I was slightly nervous about it. You know, because, you never know, you know, who’s gonna be around and everything. But I like to run a tight ship anyway, so, I think that, you know, anytime Mr. Kite would like to come into the kitchen, you know, you’re more than welcome. And, but it’s also given me an opportunity to really get to know the Kite’s, and, on a more personal level. Which, makes the cooking a lot better for me."
Higley voiceover: “The hotel took 18 months to build as the city was rushing to add rooms prior to the 2006 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four. Kite said opening on time was one of the conditions set forth when the city approved the development of the hotel on a sliver of land that once housed a park.”
Kite: “He, we wanted to make a statement. Indianapolis needed a luxury hotel, a top-quality hotel and there was, you know, we’ve got a great city here. And the progress we’ve made over the last 15 years is just fantastic and Indianapolis was ready and we found a way to do it.”
Higley: “Talk a little bit about the actual financing behind this and part of the reason that you’re a resident of the hotel is the fact that, you know, the financing was during the condo-hotel cycle of our industry, you know, five, six years ago and it’s been a success for you.”
Kite: “They’re all independently owned condos, so it’s a little different than a condo-hotel. But it was very essential for that time to get the financing to do this. We were very successful with the condos and one of, that’s one of the reasons that I’m here, because I wanted to make a statement that this was going to be successful and so, the way to do that is, you know, buy one yourself. And we’ve had very good, very good success there.”
Higley voiceover: “Tinsley, the GM, has a background at hotels in major urban gateway cities. He wasn’t the original leader of the property when it opened, but joined the Conrad Indianapolis from Beverly Hills shortly after it began receiving guests. He admits he wasn’t completely sure what he had walked into. But he likes where it has taken him.”
Tinsley: “Being the only ground up build in North America, we get the opportunity to entertain many potential developers for the brand. Again, it’s a role we embrace. It’s a role that we feel we’re in control of our own destiny a little bit there as far as brand growth.”
Higley voiceover: “The hotel industry isn’t new to Kite, but it is different than other real-estate classes in which he spent much of his career.”
Kite: “The quick answer for the difference is with hotels, service is such a big, big part of the real estate. I mean, you have to give good service in retail and shopping centers, of course, too, but, you know, but, your tenants there are long term. Your tenants in the hotel, you’ve got to get it all done in one day or two days and three days to tell them how good you are and what kind of service you have. You have a little longer in the retail real estate business. But, there’s a lot of similarities, but they’re still distinct and different.”
Higley: “Do you ever look at it from your perspective of setting an example or setting the tone? I mean, you, if you see something on the floor you’ll pick it up. You’ll greet guests by their names, you’ll say hello. You interact with the employees all throughout the day, which really kind of sets a tone for a friendly environment. And if that comes from the top, it really can only be beneficial.”
Kite: “Well, yeah. And actually, I learn every day from Greg’s team because that, they’re so service oriented and you can’t be around here without it, you know, rubbing off on you. If I’m in a, of course I’ve always been a little bit of a salesman in our real estate business, but it’s just something here in the hotel business that you can’t give them enough service.
“Actually, I get too much into the details there. You can certainly delegate a lot of things but if you’re gonna delegate you’re gonna really, you have to follow up with whoever you delegated it to, be sure it happens.
“My philosophy is that if you’re gonna have a successful hotel, then the management and the owner has to be one. I mean you have to be in lockstep. You have to be, I like to think of it that, and I think, I told this to Chris (Nassetta) when he was here, when he was kind enough to come out here when he heard what, all these records we were breaking and everything he had to see it for himself and he was really impressed with it. He said we gotta get, do more of these. And, the main thing, though, I look at it that it’s management equals ownership. And if anybody knows what an equal sign means, that means they’re both equal. And if you have that philosophy, then, and you can get the management team, like we’ve managed, like we have here, especially since Greg Tinsley came here, you know, you can be successful. And I think any big chain, if they can convince the developers and owners that they’re gonna be a team, that they’re gonna have that equal sign there, that the hotel would be successful. Because that’s the way they act, that’s the way they are and that’s the way that they look at the bottom line just like they look at the top line.
“Both the owner and the manager trust each other and, you know, sometimes you have conflicts, etc., but, as I’ve been saying, I think the success of this place is because of the fact that we operate as one team, one group.
“When I, just to give you an example, I was always looking at the cost of the cafeteria because, you know, all hotels don’t have a employment, employee cafeteria. And it was pretty costly, although we were doing everything we could to make sure it was as economical as possible. But, and every time I’d bring it up I’d get this look from Greg like you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. He just didn’t say it. But then, so he found a great way to do it. We were working I think, I forget how, we were working and so lunchtime came and we were going, in a meeting and he said well let’s just go eat in the cafeteria. So I go down to eat in the cafeteria and you see the employees, which cost a lot to train, as you know, in this business, you see they come in there and they, you can just see that they’re content and that they appreciate that you’re, you have this cafeteria where they get two meals a day.
“They know that if they can show me that it’s good for the hotel, it’s good for service, then it’s good for this, it’s this equal sign there. That’s good for the bottom line, too. And so that’s the way, I think that’s the only way you can, to me, make a successful hotel. You’ve got to have that trust between the management and the ownership and work together to help each other to make it happen.”
Higley voiceover: “And Kite says that mentality has paid off during the past two years when the economy went south.”
Kite: “You know, when we had this bad economy and when, you know, it fell off the cliff here, we managed through that. And if we hadn’t had the trust and the, this type of mentality and thinking, we would not have done as well as we’ve done. And we’ve really come through this thing well.”
Higley voiceover: “Kite and his wife Maryann are very active in community affairs. They’re heavily involved in philanthropic efforts for the Indianapolis medical community, in particular Riley Children’s Hospital. They’re also very supportive of Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, where their son, Mark, was a student when he died in 1973. While their intention purely is philanthropic and not driven by business in any form, there are some business-related advantages that are achieved by being active in the community.”
Kite: “Anytime the community knows that you care about it, it helps business. I mean you can’t, in my opinion, you can’t do enough for the community you’re in.”
Ernest Vargo II, President & CEO Wishard Foundation: “I think, having been in Indianapolis for 26 years, it’s a close knit community. And having people that people trust and have integrity certainly helps with business. It helps with people looking at where they might book a hotel or what they might do. Absolutely having that credibility is important here.”
Higley: “It’s clear your devotion to the city is, you wear it on your shirtsleeve, but let’s talk a little bit about the private/public partnership that went into play for this hotel. That had to, that was an important step in getting it built, right?”
Kite: “Oh yeah. We’re the best at that. I mean, starting with Mayor (Richard) Lugar when we first passed Unigov. And since Lugar and after (William) Hudnut, and (Stephen) Goldsmith and (Bart) Peterson and now our present mayor (Greg Ballard), the partnership between public and private has been something you could go to the bank with. Which is, of course, I say that and I really mean that because if you’re doing a public/private partnership and the private, you’re putting in your investment, like the Kite group has probably put somewhat over $500 million into the city, but you can’t go to the bank without that, knowing that behind you is a mayor or a city that’s going to be there all the time and be totally supportive. And sometimes you hit bumps in the road, you gotta to go back and work it out. And this city has always done that. And so that’s why we have, that’s why, as I told you, the Simons and all, I could name so many that, where that has just worked out very nice.”
Higley: “Well, having skin in the game puts a whole different perspective on it, doesn’t it?”
Kite: “Absolutely.”
Higley voiceover: “Kite is a lifelong real-estate salesman. He has seen properties come and go. But in the process of making the Conrad Indianapolis his home, he has broken a big rule in real estate circles.”
Kite: “Of course, you’re not supposed to fall in love with your real estate but I really enjoy the hotel business and I just get a big kick out of it.”
Higley: “A number of owners might consider themselves the expert at design, the expert at architecture, the expert at engineering, whatever you’re talking about at a hotel and it’s important that you have an owner have that background that can contribute to the conversation. How important is it for you to make sure that your management team knows your opinion? I mean, we saw that this morning at the, when we were talking about the fence. You know, you were asking, well, shouldn’t it go this way instead.”
Kite: “Fortunately I got my earlier, I started out in construction so I know a little bit about construction. And, so, I know a little bit about real estate and now I know a little bit about hotels. I, It’s critical that you can’t critique something if you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. So I know a little bit about architecture. I started out and I have an electrical engineering degree but I, it started in civil engineering and architecture where you get a lot of drawing. So I understand that, and, again, I hope I know enough about it that I don’t damage the product.”
Higley: “You don’t, do you ever think about is there too much involvement or is there such a thing as too much involvement?”
Kite: “On my part?”
Higley: “Yeah.”
Kite: “Yeah, I do think about that and that’s why I want to be careful. My personality is pretty direct, I guess, and, but at the same time I hope I have enough sense to know that you don’t know as much about hotels as your team knows.”
Higley: “Where does that leave you going forward? Do you want to do other hotels? Are you happy where you’re at with your involvement in the hotel industry?”
Kite: “Yeah, I like it, and in fact the boys and I have been discussing that recently. And when Chris came out and was really impressed with the property and he said, boy, we’ve got to do more of this. And so we’re talking to Hilton about some other hotels. In this particular economy, you have to be extremely careful of that, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t be looking forward to an opportunity. And as I said earlier, I really like, I love the business.”
Higley voiceover: “Al Kite. Indianapolis booster in many respects. Highly regarded philanthropist. Health and wellness guru. Real estate expert. Hotel owner and hotel resident. Like the Energizer Bunny, Kite is always on the go, looking for the next good deal. And as he found with the Conrad Indianapolis, that deal might just be right around the next corner.”