Developer Clyde Harris knows business ventures are about family
Clyde Harris learned the family business at a young age.
His father, a hotel manager, moved the family into New York City’s famed Waldorf Astoria. Harris, then just a boy, came of age living in the swanky hotel. The experience of living there for almost a decade would have a profound impact on the rest of his life.
“That’s where I grew up as a teenager,” the 65-year-old Harris said with a chuckle, indicating just how strange a place that is to grow up. “Being surrounded by it, you couldn’t help but learn the hotel business. I learned a couple things I probably shouldn’t have, too.”
Now things have come full circle.
On U.S. 278 in Okatie sits the 124-room Candlewood Suites, an extended stay hotel expected to open by the end of the year “with the grace of God and a tailwind,” Harris said.
Instead of retiring to Hilton Head Island to slip into a life of leisure, he moved here to do what his father had done: to groom the next generation of hotelier.
But things didn’t exactly go as planned.
Looking ahead Harris’ son, Clyde Harris IV, moved to Hilton Head after college to help a friend start an auto detailing business. He cultivated an invisible fence franchise to some success, but sold it to pursue a familiar trade.
In his early 30s, he entered the hospitality industry, first as a server at The Jazz Corner. He had always loved to cook, so he switched to the back of the house, working his way up to assistant chef.
Father and son began kicking around the idea of a joint venture. The elder Harris had managed some of the country’s premier properties, including the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, a 72-floor hotel known for its large glass windows and revolving bar. He had also worked at the corporate level, successfully launching the Crowne Plaza brand, and at one time overseeing 300 hotels owned by the parent company of Holiday Inn.
With some friends and investors, father and son formed American Hotel Development Partners in 2006 to build new hotels and a subsidiary Harris Hotel Group, to operate them once they’re built.
They began choosing sites throughout the East Coast in markets they felt were underserved including Bluffton which has tens of thousands homes planned but not yet built.
Sadly tragedy struck before the first Harris hotel got off the ground.
Clyde Harris IV died in 2006 after a three-year bout with tongue and neck cancer. He was 35.
His father was devastated, but equally determined to make their company successful.
The company’s first hotel, a Candlewood Suites near Fort Jackson in Columbia opened in October 2008. This past October, the company rolled out a second Candlewood in Hazelton, Pa., and a few days later the grand opening of a Holiday Inn Express on Abercorn in Savannah was celebrated.
Five more projects are shovel-ready “as soon as banks start lending again,” Harris said. He pegs the value of his company’s portfolio at $50 million. A trade publication recently ranked the business as the country’s 96th largest hotel operator.
His son’s involvement is not forgotten. At each of the Candlewood Suites, an oak dubbed the “Clyde Tree” is being planted next to a plaque. The upcoming hotel near the front gate of Sun City Hilton Head sits on Clyde Court. “He was the culprit of all this ,” Harris said. “Otherwise I’d be retired and playing golf right now.” It won’t be that easy for Harris to shake the business. That’s clear during a tour of the Candlewood construction site as he shifts into salesman mode. He shows off several different rooms touts amenities like granite countertops full kitchens free laundry and a convenience store in the lobby that operates on the honor system. Besides he can’t give it up now. His 14-year-old grandson already has begun to show interest in the family business.
