It’s been almost four months since the Hotel Pattee officially changed owners, and most people who you talk to believe it’s in very good hands.
Tom Maxwell took over ownership from Jay and Denise Hartz on March 1st, and since then he’s poured thousands of dollars into the facility to improve anything that was previously lacking. Additionally, he’s given thousands of dollars to the community, supporting everything from the Dewey Field renovation project to the connector for the Raccoon River Valley and High Trestle trails. General Manager Aaron Lenz, who is a Perry native hired by Maxwell to run the hotel in his absence, sees countless positives with the new ownership. “Tom Maxwell is phenomenal. He’s probably one of the better assets that this town has seen as far as scope of vision, and ability to contribute to anybody and everybody, and also progress the hotel forward. Because the last thing we want to see as a community is the hotel degrade and turn into something that’s not relevant in the world anymore. And that kind of reflects the town.”
Lenz, who worked at the hotel while in high school and has over a decade of successful hospitality and restaurant businesses under his belt, says running Hotel Pattee has been challenging but rewarding. He says for the most part, he and Maxwell have tried to maintain everything that made the hotel great, while making small changes to improve the experience, such as the food. “We just redid the entire menu, that’s going very well. We’re making some more tweeks right now just to kind of customize our menu a little better to what our locals want; but as well as offering a very unique, interesting selection to those that are not from Perry, to keep us very relevant and keep people going, ‘Wow, that was great, we enjoyed everything about our stay!’”
To learn more about the current state of Hotel Pattee, click the link below to listen to the Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program with Lenz.
https://raccoonvalleyradio.com/2018/06/lets-talk-dallas-county-6222018-aaron-lenz-and-lynsi-pasutti/