A new owner and general manager of Lexington’s Campbell House are in the midst of overseeing an eight-figure renovation and restoration project that general manager John Giattino hopes will make the 63-year-old hotel a four-star landmark.
“We want to very much stay with the horse theme and the equestrian theme and be the iconic Campbell House that it’s always been,” said Giattino, who’s been on the job in Lexington for six months.
In October the hotel, which had a month earlier shed its Crowne Plaza affiliation, was sold to former Versailles resident Ike Thrash and his Hattiesburg, Miss.-based Dawn
Properties.
“This is a long-term buy and hold situation,” said Giattino, a 37-year veteran of the hospitality industry, who said he had to be convinced the new ownership and new management group, HP Hotels of Birmingham, Ala., were interested in making the property top-notch before he would move his family and leave his hotel management solutions company in Boynton Beach, Fla.
“I wanted to know all the tools and resources and the direction that we were going [to] take the hotel,” he said. “I wanted to be sure it was going to be a success story, quite frankly.”
Giattino said he was convinced.
“They’re not just doing a quick cosmetic job; they’re doing a real deep, take it down to, in some cases, the furring strips — at minimum, down to dry wall or plaster — and all new carpeting, window treatments, valances, furniture, tile, bathroom fixtures, everything.
“[Thrash] has bought this hotel to bring it back to the grandeur and iconic status that it once had,” he said.
Construction began in mid-February on the hotel’s lobby, entrance, Kilbern’s Restaurant and a block of 65 of the hotel’s 250 rooms. Giattino said he hopes to have the initial work done by July, within a month of new custom furniture being delivered for the guest rooms.
After phase one is done, which will include a new high-barreled ceiling in the hotel’s lobby, Giattino said guests should be ignorant of the work being done elsewhere in the hotel. Blocks of rooms at a time will be closed in areas that can be cordoned off and out of sight for those staying for the night.
As a whole, the hotel — which Giattino says will have a feel of a hunt club or a high-end horse farm upon entry — should be completed by the end of the year.