updated March 7, 10:50 am
This summer, a 16-room hotel that was once the Point Way Inn in Edgartown will reopen as the Richard, the latest major hotel renovation project on Martha’s Vineyard done by Lark Hotels.
The Richard, located at 104 Main St., will be Lark Hotels’ third Edgartown property, in addition to the Christopher and the Sydney. The Sydney, a 14-room hotel opened in early 2015, is scheduled to open this summer with 16 additional rooms, according to a Lark press release. The Christopher is a 15-room hotel.
Lark Hotels made a big splash on the Island when it purchased the 95-room Wesley Hotel, the last of the grand Victorian hotels in Oak Bluffs, in April 2015. After a multimillion-dollar renovation, it reopened in June 2016 as Summercamp.
Lark Hotels operates a collection of self-described boutique hotels in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, California, and Tennessee.
“The Vineyard has been great for us,” Lark CEO Rob Blood told The Times. “It has so many natural attributes, it’s just the kind of market we want to be in.”
Blood said the harmonious partnership with Ann and Chuck Hajjar has been integral to Lark Hotels’ expanding presence in Edgartown.
“They’re sibling properties, and the Richard, the Christopher and the Sydney are named after their children,” he said. “The properties all have their own personality, but are clearly in the same family.”
Blood spent time on the Vineyard growing up, mostly in Edgartown. Asked if his time here as a CEO has brought any surprises, he said it’s the strong gravitational pull of Oak Bluffs.
“Oak Bluffs has become one of my favorite places in the world,” he said. “There’s a lot of nostalgia with Oak Bluffs; it pulls on your heartstrings. My kids love it in O.B. Of all the places we have, I spend the most time at Summercamp.”
Updated with statement from Lark Hotels CEO Rob Blood.
