Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/469117
www.wbjournal.com • Worcester Business Journal 43 25 YEARS: CRASHERS & BURNERS T he historic Hotel Barre was destroyed by a nighttime fire in 1990. The suspicious blaze came two days after the 101-year-old, just-restored Victorian inn was ordered closed by a federal Bankruptcy Court judge at the request of its largest creditor, Worcester County Institution for Savings. As The Associated Press reported at the time, then-Barre fire chief Raymond Howard termed the fire suspicious and said the three-story building was sup- posed to have been empty. More than 100 firefighters from 10 towns battled the blaze, which lit the night sky for miles. By the next morning, scores of stunned residents gathered on the Barre common to watch firefighters work on the smoldering ruins. "This is a horrible loss to Barre,'' state Rep. Stephen Brewer of Barre told the AP. ''The town will never be the same.'' And a town official at the time told the AP, "The hotel brought people from all over the world to Barre.'' Built in 1899 in a style reminiscent of a Mississippi River steamboat, the hotel contained 36 guest rooms, 11 fireplaces and an elegant dining room decorated with murals. Guests had included Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge. The Hotel Barre was purchased in 1985 for $265,000 by Kenneth and Nancy Lee Wright and Douglas Merrifield, who recreated its Victorian atmosphere. Before the shutdown and fire, the inn employed 68 full- and part- time workers. The hotel, which held an $800,000 insurance policy at the time of the fire, Hotel Barre had been listed for sale in 1987. The ask- ing price was $2.6 million unfurnished and $3.6 million furnished. A fter an 83-year history, the Higgins Armory Museum officially shut its doors last Dec. 31, despite hopes that a white knight would show up and rescue it. The armory's main collection found a home in the Worcester Art Museum with a new exhibition, "Knights!" that opened in March. The Higgins was the only U.S. museum dedicated solely to preserving and showcasing arms and armor. The end was brought on by years of financial struggles. The Worcester insti- tution had a $1.3-million annual budget, but also experienced sizable annual defi- cits despite drawing 55,000 to 60,000 visitors each year. According to its tax filings, Higgins' annual revenue fell by more than half in 2009 to $620,000. It saw a steady recovery the following two years, with revenue climbing back up to $1.2 million in 2011. Workshops and admissions revenue also saw an uptick in 2011, and the museum trimmed expens- es by cutting staff nearly 25 percent by 2011. But its deficit remained. After turning a small surplus in 2008, the museum lost more than $2.7 million between 2009 and 2011. One problem it faced was an inadequate endowment. In early 2013, it had become clear that the Higgins faced the "inescapable reality that excellent programs and strong atten- dance alone, without a significant endow- ment, cannot sustain [it] as an indepen- dent institution," James Donnelly Jr., a longtime trustee who served as Higgins' president starting in 2009, said at the time. "Higgins' biggest challenge is our lack of a deep endowment," Interim Director Suzanne Maas also said at the time. "But we're strong in virtually every other facet of museum operations." Last June, former Higgins patrons were able to buy their own pieces of his- tory as a final auction was held at the Barber Avenue site. The sale prepared the four-story, steel-and-glass building — listed on the National Register of Historic Places — for a yet-to-be-found new owner. H eralded as the savior of Worcester's often passengers-devoid airport, Direct Air started service in 2008 with nonstop flights between Worcester and Orlando. In March 2012, the love affair ended with a crushing blow as the air- port was suddenly left without a com- mercial carrier for the third time in only nine years. A flurry of headlines accom- panied the abrupt departure as Direct Air canceled flights through that May and left passengers stranded across the country. The company tried to blame the suspended service on a missed fuel payment, but also immediately filed for bankruptcy protection. The beleaguered air carrier was in dire financial straits, with debt of $10 million in missing funds from an escrow account, $25 million to $30 million owed to customers whose flights had been canceled, and more than $9 mil- lion owed to various creditors. Direct Air was also hit that August with a $9.6-million lawsuit by federal regula- tors accusing it of canceling flights and stranding passengers. In 2014, the defunct carrier once again made head- lines as one of the company's original owners, Edward Warneck, filed for per- sonal bankruptcy. Despite Direct Air's financial and legal drama, supporters of Worcester's airport, owned and operated by Massport, stood staunchly behind the viability of adding a new carrier. In April 2012, Massport spokesman Richard Walsh said Direct Air's demise wasn't surprising and he expressed optimism about the airport's future. "What Massport needs to show airlines is that there is a market at Worcester airport, and Direct Air showed us that. Their numbers increased every year and Worcester was one of their strongest routes," Walsh said. "We'll share the market data and we'll see where that takes us." The latest chapter in the decades-old Worcester Regional Airport struggle remains — to date — uplifting. In November 2013, Worcester became JetBlue's 80th destination. Direct Air Higgins Armory