Aug 17 2006
MacQueen New King of the Beach

MacQueen new king of the beach: by Troy Moon in the Pensacola News Journal, July 2006: Julian MacQueen is among other things, a hotel developer. And although he lives comfortably in Gulf Breeze, and has another home near British Colombia, Canada, MacQueen isn’t a one-dimensional financial fat cat living in a penthouse loft, whiling away the hours counting stacks of money, as the stereotype of a developer may dictate to some. MacQueen, who is building what would be the tallest hotel on Pensacola Beach adjacent to his Hilton Garden Inn, said he doesn’t develop solely for the money. The president and founder of Innisfree Hotels Inc. said his passion for hotels, resorts and hospitality are tethered to his spirituality and his Bahá’í faith. “There is a principle in the Bahá’í faith that work is worship if it is done toward the service of mankind,” said MacQueen, 55. “That is an underlying principle I try to practice. I’m in the service business. And with the right attitude and right state of mind, it is a noble act to provide hospitality. I truly believe that.” MacQueen does provide hospitality, that’s for sure. Besides the Pensacola Beach Hilton Garden Inn, MacQueen also operates the Hilton Garden Inn and the Holiday Inn Express, both on Orange Beach, Alabama. He’s just finished the eighth floor of The Towers, a $44 million, 17 story hotel/condominium project next to his Pensacola Beach hotel and has approval to build an 18-story hotel/condominium to the east. MacQueen admitted that “good developers make a bunch of money,” but said he fell in love with the hospitality industry long before it became a money making profession for him. A Birmingham, Ala., native, MacQueen and his family vacationed every summer in Destin when he was growing up. MacQueen loved the beach, the sand, the atmosphere – everything about vacation living in a seaside paradise. “I was there every summer. And at the end of summer, I didn’t want to go back.” When he was 15, his parents told him if he got a job he could stay in Destin until school started, even though the rest of the family was heading back to Birmingham. “I hitchhiked down the road going from hotel to hotel looking for work.” He found work as a busboy at a Destin hotel. The next year, he returned as a waiter. The year after that, he was the dining-room manager. After high school, MacQueen headed to the University of South Alabama, with three years of hotel experience, but he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He worked at another hotel doing the night audit while in college, even though he had dreams of attending graduate school to further study psychology. “I had every intention of going to graduate school,” he said. “I was accepted, but I couldn’t afford it. So I stayed in the hotel business.” MacQueen founded Innisfree in 1985 with one hotel in Alabama then moved to Gulf Breeze the following year, along with his wife, Kim MacQueen and their children, Jonathan and Skye MacQueen. He has been developing hotels and condominiums ever since. “I love creating an experience where people can come in and enjoy themselves,” he said. “I have a real passion for that. For me, it’s like theater. When someone comes into my hotels they’re coming into my world. That’s my opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives.” Although he’s all business when it comes to business, his job doesn’t consume him, he said. The MacQueens spent three years in Haifa, Israel, in the late 1990s to perform volunteer work at the Bahá’í World Centre, the spiritual and administrative heart of the Bahá’í community, which is located in the northern Israeli city. There, MacQueen served as general manager of buildings and grounds, and worked on the business side for the Bahá’í community. The Bahá’í faith, founded in 19th century Persia – now Iraq – teaches that religious history is evolving and that God has sent a series of messengers, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad, to enlighten humankind, as well as the founder of the Bahá’í Faith, Bahá’u’lláh, who taught that all religions honor the same god and urge service to others. “It teaches the oneness of man, the oneness of religions, and the oneness of God,” he said. “We, welcome all religions and accept them as being valid and truthful.” The MacQueens’ faith is central to their lives, and it has helped them through traumatic times. In 2001, Skye MacQueen suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was injured in an automobile accident. The car’s roof collapsed on her head, shaking her brain violently. The tragedy took MacQueen away from work for nearly a year to tend to his daughter. “He was solely devoted to her for a year,” said Carol Ruben, MacQueen’s assistant at Innisfree, who has worked with him for 18 years. “It took him away from work, and we here at the company ran the company for him.” His wife of 25 years, Kim MacQueen, said their daughter’s accident and ongoing battle to combat her injuries “turned the universe upside down.” “Julian went through many years of being goal-directed at work,” Kim MacQueen said from the couple’s French Country home in Gulf Breeze. “He just grew out of that phase. Now, family’s first and everything creative is second.” Skye, now 25, lives independently in New York. “It’s a lifelong journey from here on, but she’s getting better and better,” MacQueen said. Kim MacQueen said that Skye is “developing a team of doctors and looking for the next plan. But the idea that she’s up there at all is a miracle.” When the MacQueens want to visit Skye, or their son, Jonathan MacQueen, and the new grandson in Atlanta, it’s not a long trip. He just gets into his plane and goes. MacQueen has been a pilot since he was 16, using his tip money from his Destin hotel to earn his pilot’s license. He has a small business jet, and two light jets on order, but is most passionate about his restored “flying boat,” an antique 1943 Grumman Widgeon G-44 he often flies during Blue Angels air shows. Flying gives him a freedom and calm that is hard to get on the ground, he said. “I like the ability to go from one place to another quickly.” he said. “And I love to explore. Every time we take the Widgeon up to British Columbia, where we have a house on a little island off the coast, well, my wife is happy reading at the house, and I just hop in the Widgeon and explore the bush around British Colombia.” But, he insisted, everything comes after his family. “I truly married up, and Kim has been the center of my life for 28 years,” he said. “She’s the smartest person I know and the most spiritually centered. And, of course, our children, and our grandchild are what’s most important in our lives.” MacQueen’s Gulf Breeze office is filled with pictures of his family, including his month old grandson, Thierry MacQueen. “I’m loving being a grandfather, but thinking of myself as a grandfather is strange,” said the still youthful-looking MacQueen and avid waterskier and snowboarder. “I have to come up with another name other than grandfather. I’m leaning toward Papa.”