“Living on the job has its advantages, as I found last Friday when we unveiled the Tony Bennett statue,” says Paul Tormey, general manager of Fairmont San Francisco.
Tony Bennett first sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in the hotel’s Venetian Room in December 1961. The eight-foot bronze statue, crafted by Bruce Wolfe, was a 90th birthday present from the city – the $1.1 million was raised by former Mayor Willie Brown (who breakfasts in the hotel most days) and the city’s Chief of Protocol Charlotte Mailliard Shultz, wife of former Secretary of State George Shultz. Another VIP at the unveiling was California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is also closely connected with the hotel as her husband, Richard Blum, is majority owner of Claremont Club & Spa, A Fairmont Hotel, in Berkeley, which Paul Tormey, in his capacity as regional vice president at FRHI for California, oversees.
“Tony Bennett is still drawing in the crowds, and he is certainly godfather to this city. That same evening (Friday August 19), there was a Tony Bennett Night at AT&T Park, and the next day, the Saturday, he again sang at a benefit dinner and concert we hosted here at the hotel – tickets starting at $1,000 a head – to launch the Tony Bennett Fund for Emergency Pediatric Care at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital,” explained a somewhat-excited Paul Tormey.
There is so much activity at the hotel that Paul Tormey, a master of logistics, would be hard-pressed were he and his wife Pam not living in. “Two weeks ago we were driving down to buy some hardware for our apartment when I got a call saying President Clinton had just arrived and could I come and say hello? I was in off-duty gear so I thanked him for his call and said I would prefer to see him and Mrs. Clinton after November,” Tormey recalled.
Yes, he always has a car when he lives in-house. “After graduating in transport logistics I joined Sheraton, and actually I used to live in once a week when I was hotel manager at Sheraton Boston, and there, every morning before starting work, I would drive around the block a couple of times. Here in San Francisco I prefer to take a hearty walk around Grace Cathedral and the gardens, pretending I am commuting. Another secret is never to wear my name tag when I am off-duty.”
The 592-room hotel, built after the 1906 earthquake by two daughters of the late mining magnate and U.S. senator James Graham Fair, begat the Fairmont brand. Last November the Korean investment fund Mirae Asset Global Investments paid $480 million for the historic property, where, in 1945, the charter for the United Nations was drafted. “This April they asked me to come to Seoul, Korea, to be interviewed. I was tremendously impressed by their intention to bring the hotel up to latest cutting-edge without losing its century-old authenticity,” said Tormey.
The hotel typically runs in the 90s when it comes to occupancy, with average rate around the US$400 mark. He has an experienced 600-strong workforce, with dozens having clocked up over three decades. Now he plans a tweaking update of some F&B and retail outlets. He is working with the Nob Hill Collection, which includes partnering with the nearby Mark Hopkins InterContinental, Ritz-Carlton San Francisco, and Scarlett Huntington, and the Live Nation-managed Masonic Center, on more marketing of the location.
In between all this activity he has to visit his other hotels, in Berkeley, Newport Beach, San Jose, Santa Monica and Sonoma. “It is lucky I do not have a proper commute,” he laughed.