Pisgah Inn operator plans changes after contract renewed

MOUNT PISGAH – The operator of Pisgah Inn says he plans upgrades to the popular stop on the Blue Ridge Parkway southwest of Asheville after parkway officials announced Monday he will run the inn for another 10 years.

Bruce O'Connell, head of a family company that has operated the inn since 1978, got national attention last fall when he defied parkway managers and kept the inn open during part of last October's federal government shutdown.

"I believe in this case the government finally did something right," O'Connell said Monday after learning that he had won a competition for a contract to run the inn 2015-25.

Larger corporations have increasingly competed for and won contracts for concessions to operate facilities in National Park Service units in recent years. O'Connell said in June that he paid a consultant $100,000 to write up his proposal this time because of the extra risk of losing.

O'Connell said he plans to make the 51-room inn "as environmentally friendly and as green as can be done." He said he also plans upgrades to the restaurant, country store, gift shop and employee housing.

O'Connell said he is considering 200 changes. They include dramatically reducing the amount of solid waste the property generates, upgrades to hotel rooms, adding fire sprinklers to the half of the property that still lacks them, a small increase in seating capacity in the restaurant and going to energy efficient LED lighting throughout the property.

He plans what he called a "re-purposing center" at a location outside the parkway corridor where supplies headed for the inn would be consolidated for shipment to its location at nearly 5,000 feet above sea level, reducing the number of trucks that travel back and forth to it on the parkway.

O'Connell said he had held back on initiatives because of uncertainty over whether he would continue to operate the inn.

"Now that we know that we've got another 10 years, we can resume our plans to make this place the jewel of the National Park Service," he said.

O'Connell and inn staff kept it open after a National Park Service deadline to close it during the government shutdown last October, then were forced to close when parkway staffers blocked off entrances. They removed barriers, however, after O'Connell sued.

The controversy drew a storm of attention on social media and national news outlets.

O'Connell said he had been told the issue would have no bearing on whether he would win the contract, and it appears it didn't.

He said Parkway Supervisor Mark Woods visited the inn late Monday morning to give him news of the new contract: "He put out his hand and said, 'Congratulations.'"

In a statement, Woods said, "Mr. O'Connell and his family have provided services to millions of visitors over 35 years on the parkway. We are pleased that Parkway Inn Inc. will continue this rich tradition."

O'Connell said he has not been given details of the contract to sign and did not know how many other companies had competed for it, although he said several people had visited the inn during an event the Park Service held earlier this year for prospective operators to look the property over.

"I was warned by peers in the industry" that larger operators would seek the contract, he said.

A parkway spokeswoman said she had no information on contract details or the number of competing bids.

The expiring contract requires O'Connell's Parkway Inn to pay the Park Service a franchise fee ranging from 3 percent of gross revenue up to $3.5 million to 5 percent over $4 million.