The Inn at Fairfield Beach, one of the region’s best-known boutique lodging establishments, has new owners with Jeff and Mike Giannone, a father and son duo from Southport who purchased the property earlier this month for $2 million.
The 6,804-square-foot, 14-unit property at 1160 Reef Road was opened in 1995 by Candace Levine, a former internal auditor at Pitney Bowes, as the Sea Grape Inn before switching to the current name in 2007. The establishment has earned glowing praise in the often-vituperative world of online travel reviews ”” it has garnered an average of four-star reviews on Booking.com, Kayak and TripAdvisor, an average of four-and-a-half star reviews of Expedia, Facebook Priceline and Trivago and a five-star average on Reservations.com and Travelocity.
Jeff Giannone is a managing member at Tucker Management, a Bridgeport-based real estate investment firm, while his son Mike is a director at Calmwater Capital, a Los Angeles-based real estate bridge lender. Together, they plan to keep the Inn at Fairfield Beach operating well into the future and are planning a series of upgrades to ensure that it will continue to attract new generations of customers and provide an attractive short term housing option in the off-season.
“It’s a long-established local icon and we wanted to preserve it and update it to bring it into the next century,”Jeff Giannone said. “We are going to focus on redecorating and upgrading the kitchenettes. We hope to get longer term stays over the winter when the hotel business is slow.”
“I think a lot of people that are concerned about the future of the Inn should be excited about the fact that it’s being preserved,”the elder Giannone continued. “We feel like there’s a good amount of support for this business, it’s been fully booked all summer. We just figured when we saw it was for sale that it was a good investment. It just made sense, it hit us like it was a no-brainer.”
Jeff Giannone observed that the establishment was “one of the few hotels that has direct access to the beach in town. It is basically a hundred yards across the street to a very nice beach. We jumped at the chance to buy it because of all of that, but it has been almost 30 years since it was last worked on.”
The Giannones’ plans for the Inn are designed to bring it closer to what travelers expect from contemporary hotels ”” they described a new class of traveler seeking extended stays in communities outside of New York City. But while these travelers want to be able to escape the Big Apple, they still want the luxury of an easy commute back to city if their work requires their presence. Thus, a beachfront getaway within commuting distance might be a perfect fit.
The new owners also wanted a lodging establishment that reflected the Fairfield community.
“In our minds, downtown and this beach area has seen a big transition in new homes and businesses,”said Mike Giannone. “We think it’s a good opportunity to bring this up to the standard that all of the residents in the town expect.”
The redesign of the interior spaces will be overseen by Calla Cane, a bicoastal interior design studio with East Coast offices in Norwalk. The Giannones also plan to upgrade many of the basic amenities available throughout the hotel, including keyless entry for rooms, high-speed internet access and WiFi throughout, adding at least a breakfast option for guests, and the latest electronics for rooms are among the planned improvements.
In addition to attracting new visitors, the Giannones are cognizant of those who’ve made the Inn at Fairfield Beach a home away from home: the many guests from Fairfield University. The Giannones are interested in continuing this relationship and also hope to offer the rooms to university’s students for long-term off-season rentals when school is in session.
The Giannones said they expect to close the Inn at Fairfield Beach for a few months in the fall to carry out renovations and reopen by January 2023.
