I have overseen the family-owned Hulls Cove property in Bar Harbor for more than 40 years and through 3 generations.
I implemented the vacation rental business at that property more than 20 years ago. The property was among the first vacation rentals in Bar Harbor and on Mt. Desert Island, and definitely the first in the Hulls Cove neighborhood which has always been considered the most historic and prestigious residential neighborhood in Bar Harbor.
I brought to that effort my own background as an officer of national financial institutions, for a decade immediately following my graduation from business school at Dartmouth College.
For those institutions then, and as an entrepreneur in subsequent decades, I was variously a residential, commercial, and industrial real estate developer; a private lender; and a syndicator – throughout the US, including in these locations: Northern Maine; Boston, Mass.; Providence, RI; Newport, RI; Houston, Dallas, and the Gulf Coast, Texas; Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, and Jacksonville, Fla.; and Beverly Hills, California.
Partners, affiliates, and/or associates included: the John Hancock Life Insurance Company, the First National Bank of Boston, the Boston Company, a publicly (AMEX) traded REIT (real estate investment trust), various national public accounting firms, and regional law firms.
I attended these academic institutions: PhillipsAcademy (Andover, Mass.), Colby College, Harvard College, Dartmouth College (MBA), the University of Miami Law School, and the University of Maryland.
Social affiliations, some distantly past: the Bar Harbor Club, Carnegie Abbey (Newport, RI), the Club Elan (Houston, Texas); Le Club International (Ft. Lauderdale), Yvonne’s of Locke-Ober’s (Boston), the Portland Club (Portland, Maine), the historic Tarratine Club (Bangor, Maine), the also historic Union Boat Club (Boston), the Dartmouth Club (Boston).
Through the subject property, I have had affiliations with, and/or have been a sponsor of, the Chamber of Commerce of Bar Harbor, the Mount Desert Island Chamber of Commerce, Maine Summer Camps (for children), the Maine Tourism Association, and the Maine State Office of Tourism.
Retiring and returning from Southern New England to Maine more than a decade ago, in order to focus on the operations of the subject property, I made it my goal to secure the position of the oceanfront Hulls Cove property as the indisputably best vacation rental property among its then 500 (now 1,700) market place competitors. (Six employees are now engaged year-round in that effort, and for just that one property).
Achieving that goal resulted from: continuously improving the physical aspects of the building and the grounds at the subject property; carefully noting the practices and standards of extreme luxury resorts on both the East and West Coasts; blending into the presentation panache and ambiance and historic appreciation; uniquely causing nearly tame wildlife to be a significant part of my guests’ experience, especially for children visiting Maine for the first time; and by ensuring that every guest was treated as I myself would expect to be treated.
Past guests have paid well to come to the Oceansedge property. They arrived with high expectations, which those guests made well known to me, as I invited them to do.
Those same guests have kindly given the subject property uninterrupted and unanimous 5-star ratings – on every visit, every year, beginning with the inception of online commercial rating systems years ago. My guests’ lavishly generous endorsements further suggest that the Oceansedge property is, in fact, the best property of its kind among all of its competitors, and the best purveyor of incomparable vacation experiences, as was and is my goal.
– JBDyer
