Bridgeport Holiday Inn remade into a showcase
Ernie Trefz, co-owner along with his brother Christian Trefz of the Bridgeport Holiday Inn on an early March day. The pool”™s roof is retractable for nice weather.
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Two years, $10 million and 800 pillows later, the refurbished Bridgeport Holiday Inn Hotel and Convention Center is complete.
Forty-seven tons of marble tile have been added, along with 200 new flat-screen TVs and 22 miles of coaxial and Internet cable; 236 tons of material was removed; and every one of the hotel”™s 209 rooms on nine floors was made new.
Much of the design scheme ”“ from the shower rods to the shower curtains to the bar in the Blue Martini Lounge ”“ revolves around the bold stroke of green across the “H” on the new Holiday Inn corporate logo. In Bridgeport, in keeping with a remodeling scheme that surpassed Holiday Inn”™s corporate requirements, that logo is backed at the front entrance by “absolute black” granite panels.
The dozen conference rooms also are new again and include the nearly 5,000-square-foot Harbor Ballroom. The conference rooms can be divided for breakout sessions or smaller meetings. The smallest conference room is 288 square feet; four are larger than 1,600 square feet. The entire hotel is wifi”™d.
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch said the hotel is “a linchpin as far as attracting large events to the Arena at Harbor Yards. It”™s tough to attract large intercollegiate events ”“ they”™re worth a lot to the city and without the Trefz family we wouldn”™t have that.” And, he confessed, “Frankly, we don”™t do enough in the city to promote tourism. The Fairfield County Convention and Visitors Bureau has had success attracting the NCAA women”™s regional basketball playoffs and Division 1 hockey. We need to do more.”
With the hotel”™s construction “99.99 percent complete,” co-owner Ernie Trefz said the work of running the hotel gears up.
“We have to do that by getting the word out and we”™ve got a way to go yet,” said Trefz, whose owner-partner is his brother Christian Trefz. “That is best accomplished by word of mouth.
“We”™ve got a story to tell,” Ernie Trefz said as he walked through the hotel recently. “The guests arrive in an urban area and maybe they”™re a little skeptical. Then, they can”™t get over our homelike feel ”“ we hear that from numerous guests. It”™s more like a boutique hotel; they get the same type of feel. It”™s something the staff is trained to do. If they”™re making a bed and they”™re asked to do a favor, it”™s done.”?Lorraine Scelfo, director of sales and marketing, has been with the hotel for 21 years, through four makeovers, this one by far the largest. “Our hotel truly has a boutique feel without the boutique hotel pricing,” she said. She noted the hotel has hosted Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and entertainment luminaries such as Tony Bennett and Reba McEntire. “But we never forget that our most important guest is truly John Q. Public; he or she is the reason we choose this business in the first place.”
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Christian Trefz
Toward that end, Trefz engages hotel employees and the guests with equal courtesy. He spoke with several guests during the recent tour and bid them a safe trip with laughter and handshakes, saying a moment later, “That”™s what we do here. For three or four minutes they stopped to tell us how good their stay was.”
The year-round heated pool has a retractable roof. In warm-weather months, the pool becomes optional for swimmers as the hotel ferries guests to Seaside Park Beach via its complimentary shuttle. At a mile long, Seaside Park is the biggest beach in the state. The shuttle augments a sturdy offering of pedestrian-friendly destinations in the city that include restaurants, Harbor Yard ”“ both the baseball diamond and the arena ”“ and museums. It is also central to the business and banking core of the city, providing accommodations ”“ deemed critical by planners ”“ for those looking to invest in any locale. “There is no family that has put their money where their mouth is like the Trefz family,” Finch said. “In good times and bad times, they”™ve put their money up.”
The maestro of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony has been staying at the hotel for the 23 years Trefz has owned it ”“ it had one previous owner ”“ and is duly impressed by the latest renovations. Meier and Trefz greet each other like the friends they have become across two decades. “It”™s a great hotel,” Meier said. “Every time, there”™s something new and it”™s always great.”
Anyone who has custom-built knows curves are a lot more expensive and time-consuming to build than straight lines. ?“You have to appreciate doing everything in semicircles,” said general contractor Paul Lopezzo of Bridgeport-based Treco Construction, who employed 40 workers including subcontractors from “March to March, two years almost to the day” to complete the renovation
From beside a leather couch in the Presidential Suite, Trefz said, “Everything you”™re looking at has been replaced. We even put marble around the tubs; we weren”™t required to do that. We really went over and above. And Paul (Lopezzo) really did a great job. He”™s a master and a perfectionist. He”™ll never admit it, but he is.”
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Lorraine Scelfo, director of sales and marketing, Bridgeport Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center, middle, with hotel co-owner Ernie Trefz, front, and General Manager Bill McGarry at the Blue Martini”™s semicircular bar.
The Holiday Inn licensing contracts provide guides for remakes. “We went beyond Holiday Inn standards to create this environment for our guests,” said hotel General Manager Bill McGarry.
Trefz concurred via anecdote: “We had a photographer in here from Holiday Inn to take pictures of all the work. This photographer said he had photographed 40 hotels for Holiday Inn. ”˜This one stands out head and shoulders above the rest,”™ he told us.”
McGarry said, “This is the No. 1-rated Holiday Inn in Connecticut via customer surveys and in the top 150 in the nation.”
The lobby chairs are leather; the dancing martini glasses that ring the Blue Martini are etched into glass panels; the fabric ceiling in the Blue Martini was designed with an ear for acoustics. When day is done, all the hotel mattresses are Serta; the linens are 100 percent cotton and there is a choice of foam or feather pillows.
“Now comes the work and we”™ve got a way to go,” Trefz said. “The best way to sell any product is word of mouth by satisfied guests. We”™ll build up our sales and really make this place work.
“The opportunities in the downtown area are continuing to move forward,” Trefz said. “The Arena, the Bluefish ballpark, many new restaurants are just a few of the attractions. There are also new retail establishments and people moving into newly renovated apartments and condominiums, which are all located within minutes of the beautiful Seaside Park and its mile of beautiful beach.”
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Hotel comptroller Tina Bibens beside the lobby fountain.
Trefz is a well-known philanthropist ”“ the Trefz Family Foundation supports 50 organizations ”“ and businessman beyond the hotel. “The Trefz family has an extensive background in the food industry from retail, manufacturing provisions to McDonald”™s restaurants,” he said.
“We are proud of the newly renovated Bridgeport Holiday Inn and Conference Center, which is very important to the city and the downtown area,” he said. “We are getting wonderful compliments from our guests for our newly remodeled hotel. Our guests also love the new Blue Martini Lounge and enjoying a great meal at the Park City Grill Restaurant.”
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That”™s a lot of hangers
Among the additions that make the remade Bridgeport Holiday Inn and Convention Center shine are:
? 1,500 lamps and light fixtures;
? a bit more than 2 linear miles of curtains;
? 108,000 square feet of new carpet;
? seven linear miles of wall covering; and
? 1,300 works of art.
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So ”“ how’s the food?
“I have been to a lot of political dinners ”“ several thousand in my lifetime ”“ and you really appreciate a place that has its act together,” said Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, 54. “The food is really the selling point at the Holiday Inn. You don’t get rubber chicken. Ernie never skimps on service.”
The hotel hosts fundraisers, breakfasts, business events, even the mayor”™s State of the City address. “Except for Testo”™s Restaurant, we don”™t have a place for several hundred people to sit down and have a meal in the city,” Finch said. “Holiday Inn is really a nerve center.”