Saving Fran O'Brien's, part III.

Update: More from Hilton here, at Andi's World.

SWWBO (a Hilton Diamond Member) received (as did many who emailed, I'm sure - including Mark Storer, from his comment in the original post) this response from the manager of the besieged Hilton, Brian Kelleher:

Thank you for your _expression of concern regarding the Fran O’Brien’s restaurant. I appreciate your interest and would like to take this opportunity to respond to you personally.

For strictly business reasons related solely to the inability to reach a new lease agreement, the Capital Hilton has elected to terminate the lease with the operator of Fran O’Brien’s restaurant at the hotel. This decision was not at all related to the Friday night dinners for disabled veterans but rather a result of lease negotiations that failed. The hotel has offered to host and sponsor the May 5, 2006 dinner and expressed interest in working closely with Walter Reed so that the Friday night tradition can continue. Furthermore, the hotel is in discussions with one of the sponsors of the Friday night dinners to continue their support of the dinners.

The Capital Hilton prides itself on its involvement and support of many community organizations and events and has provided complimentary or discounted rooms to families with veterans in the hospital, donated facilities to military organizations and most recently hosted a meeting for 300 people.

Sincerely,
Brian Kelleher
General Manager, Capital Hilton

I won't quibble about the *you personally* aspect of a mass email - to expect other than this is to quibble that Hilton should eschew the convenience of the very same medium being used to smack 'em upside the head, and engage in a Navin R. Johnson-style orgy of check email writing. Let's hope he's saying this: "I'm gonna bounce back and when I do I'm gonna buy you a diamond so big it's gonna make you puke. " and not this quote from the same movie, albeit a different character... "Die, you random son of a bitch." No, I'm sure he's not. But I bet he does wish he could wish away all us cat jugglers.

Let's take it at face value. The owners of O'Brien's lost the space. I don't know how long it takes to make a move of this nature in that market - but you know both sides of this equation do.

I rather expect there were some hard feelings on both sides over intractability, too.

So, how hard is it (given the Friday night thing) to say, "Okay - you lose, we're not extending. You've got X months to move out" rather than just seemingly (to us) out-of-the-blue the eviction notice?

I suspect the truth lies somewhere in-between the two stories. I've not been keen on fully demonizing Hilton as much as I've been keen on keeping that little perk going as long as someone is willing and able to do it. I'm in this one for the troops. So, both sides, please, siddown and settle it, and I'd appreciate it if you'd take care of the troops as they've been taken care of so generously. I'll give ya my bucks if ya do...

FbL adds her take:

The thing that bugs me and makes me think things aren't on the up-and-up here is that the owners at Fran's seem to be saying that they never received an offer from the Hilton, so there couldn't have been any negotiations that "failed."

Greyhawk reported: "For over six months they have been asking the Hilton Management for the terms for renewal of their lease. For over 5 months they were told not to worry they would have the renewal lease in a few weeks."

How could there have been a negotiation (as Hilton claims) when there was never an offer? A lot of this just doesn't make sense. I don't chalk it up to anti-troop behavior, as they have a decent track record in general. But I've got some thoughts on the subject here.