Family has sold Golden Eagle

The 31-acre Golden Eagle Resort at 511 Mountain Road sold last week for $3.66 million to a five-person corporation called Dimand Real Estate Association LLC.

“We wanted to do something in Vermont, and Stowe had a reputation of having the best school system in the state. It was kind of an impulse,” Herb Hillman said last week, reminiscing back to 1963, walking the grounds of his old resort where, in recent years, he took pleasure in maintaining the flowers and greenery.

Carol Van Dyke, the Hillmans’ daughter, has run the inn with her husband, Neil Van Dyke, since the late 1980s.

She said the property has been “quietly” on the market for the past seven years with a small Boston real estate firm. Dimand has hired a Massachusetts company, Linchris Hotel Corp., to run the inn, but the name will still be the Golden Eagle.

“The families just decided it was time to get out of the hospitality business,” Nick Pancoast, Linchris vice president, said this week. “And we’re able to able to look at the property and hopefully breathe some new life into it.”

Linchris has brought in a new general manager, Allisyn Richards, but Pancoast said all the other employees are staying on. Van Dyke said the Golden Eagle has many long-serving employees, including one family with three generations of employment there: a maintenance worker is the son of a laundry room employee, who is the daughter of the former head housekeeper.

“Guests will see the Golden Eagle, and when they come in they’ll see the same friendly faces,” Pancoast said.

Van Dyke says the resort needs new energy to be successful. She and husband Neil aren’t “riding off into the sunset,” and are keeping their houses near the property. Neil Van Dyke is a Stowe selectman and is the search-and-rescue coordinator for the state of Vermont.

“We had a good run and it was an important part of our lives,” Carol Van Dyke said. “It gave us a platform so we could be a real part of the Stowe community.”

Hotels of all sizes

Linchris Hotel Corp., based in Hanover, Mass., operates 33 hotels and inns, mostly in the Northeast. The names will be familiar to anyone who’s looked for a place to stay while on the road. It also manages a handful of independent properties such as the Golden Eagle.

Linchris runs a Best Western in Rutland, a Holiday Inn Express in Springfield, and a Comfort Suites in St. Johnsbury, among its five hotels in Vermont.

Pancoast said Golden Eagle is more along the lines of its more quirky properties, such as Pleasant View Inn in Westerly, R.I., or Surfside Hotel and Suites in Provincetown, Mass.

Asked what he thinks about a family-owned place like Golden Eagle now being owned by an LLC and run by a hotel corporation, Pancoast said he considers Linchris a small company that takes care of its employees, and showcases “traditional New England hospitality.”

He said that, when the attention dies down about the sale, the same old Golden Eagle will still be there. Well, almost: Pancoast said the company plans on redoing the carpets and wallpaper in the rooms, and modernizing the resort with, for starters, more reliable Internet connections.

“Right now, we’re just in the evaluation process, just walking around the hotel,” Pancoast said.

Part of the inn crowd

Carol Van Dyke was 7 years old when her parents, Herb and Ann Hillman, purchased the property in 1963. Back then, it was a simple row of 12 rooms — the foundation of which still stands at the middle of sprawling property, now expanded to 89 units, with indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts, a fitness and conference center, and the Colonial Cafe restaurant, a popular place for breakfast even with non-guests.

“Dad had been part of a family ice cream business that had just been bought up by Hood, and he was looking for something new,” Van Dyke said. “He chose the Golden Eagle.”

Around the same time, in the early to mid-1960s, Van Dyke said a couple other still-operating hotels opened up, the Stoweflake and Town and Country, part of an influx of family-owned businesses coming to Mountain Road.

Van Dyke said the new lodge owners all complemented each other, even if there was some competition for guests.

“We feel the business will be in good hands with new energy, and our employees will have new opportunities with the corporation,” Van Dyke said.