CommonWealth Magazine - Summer/Fall 2005
Proper Bostonians
Isenberg School Alumni Thrive in Boston's Hotel Industry
David Colella '75
Alumni Profile: David Colella '75
Vice President and Managing Director
Colonnade
“Most of the major decisions of this hotel are made right here at this table with our management team, not at some distant corporate nerve center,” emphasizes the Colonnade’s vice president and managing director David Colella ’75. Just across the street from the Hynes and Prudential centers in the heart of Boston’s Back Bay, the independently owned and managed hotel houses 285 guest rooms and luxury suites, Boston’s only roof-top swimming pool, and an authentic French brasserie. Founded in 1971 by the century-old Boston-based real estate firm, The Druker Company, Ltd., the Colonnade exudes an unselfconscious, unstuffy elegance that combines contemporary European flair with Bostonian roots. Meshing those and other attributes is by and large a craft—an enterprise that frequently defies scalability, which is just the way that Colella and owner Ronald Druker want it. So apparently do the hotel’s guests, who have included Frank Sinatra, Harry Connick Jr., Presidents Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Matt Damon, Val Kilmer, Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Maroon 5, Alicia Keys and Los Lonely Boys.
“Our independence gives us the flexibility to try different things, to pursue our market niche without lobbying distant corporate authorities who don’t always understand local nuances,” observes the Isenberg School class of 1975 alumnus, who is also vice president of operations, overseeing two other Druker Company hotels in Boston: the Midtown Hotel and the Inn at Longwood Medical Center. (The Colonnade does leverage assistance with marketing and reservations as a member of Concorde Hotels and Summit Hotels and Resorts.) “There’s tremendous creativity and camaraderie among our core of managers. They thrive in a culture that is open and honest and that promotes from within.” The culture’s agility was evident six years ago when the Colonnade hired its first full-time information technology director. “That decision put us ahead of the curve within the industry. We decided that we couldn’t afford not to make the move,” notes Colella, who lives in Norwell with his wife, Nancy. “Many in our industry have since followed suit, but our independence allowed us to be the vanguard.” With the new director driving IT, 100 percent of the hotel had broadband internet access in 2000 and wireless internet in 2003. “Our IT and marketing directors have both done fantastic things with our web site that have increased our internet market share and broadened our presence online.”
Can you spot the skyline? The Colonnade offers
Boston's only rooftop swimming pool.
IT amenities, which include wired and wireless internet, two-line speakerphones, and fax/modem lines, seem right at home in the Colonnade’s contemporary European-style guestrooms. The hotel also offers nine luxury suites, each with its own personality. The Author’s Suite features volume-filled mahogany bookcases, a leather-top writing desk, and overstuffed chairs; the Conductor’s Suite (favored by Sinatra and visited by musicians such as the late Luther Vandross, Wynton Marsalis and Alicia Keyes) sports a baby grand piano and a display of signed musical scores. Recent investments in the hotel include a $3.2 million enlargement of its ballroom and a multimillion-dollar renovation of its meeting space, offering smart European style with state-of-the-art technology. “Those investments have helped make us one of Boston’s premier destinations for business meetings, weddings, and other social gatherings,” notes Colella.
Another idiosyncratic move by the Colonnade was its establishment in 1998 of an authentic Parisian brasserie. Following months of research, some of it involving dedicated brasserie-hopping in Paris, Colella and Druker joined forces with renowned French chef Jean Joho and Lettuce Entertain You to create and license their own variation on his award-winning Chicago-based Brasserie Jo. From aperitifs to profiteroles, the chic, full-line eating/drinking establishment has become a touchstone of Boston’s night life. “On Friday and Saturday nights Jo draws 450-650 patrons, including local Francophiles,” observes Colella. “True to the French predilection for late evenings, we keep the restaurant open until 11 p.m. and the bar, which serves a light menu, stays open until 2 a.m. Brasserie Jo is definitely not a chain-driven concept.”
On the way downstairs from the Colonnade’s breeze-swept roof-top pool, which Colella aptly describes as an island oasis in the city, the Isenberg School alumnus points down a long hallway toward a connecting skywalk to The Druker Company’s Colonnade Residences, a two-year-old development of 99 luxury rental apartments, which draw on the hotel’s housekeeping and room service amenities. If you’re in the market, you might be disappointed to learn that the apartments are completely sold out, more than a few to higher-profile Bostonians.
Colella joined The Druker Company in 1992 after sixteen years with Omni Hotels. At Omni, he served as general manager of the Omni Hotel at Independence Park in Philadelphia and ran the venerable Ambassador East in Chicago. He also held senior management positions in New York, Minneapolis, and Boston. In the early 1980s he was president and CEO of The Levy Organization’s Chicago-based Gaper’s Caterers, the country’s oldest and largest off-site catering company. “I had a rewarding experience at the Ambassador East and appreciated working with so many talented professionals during my long tenure with Omni Hotels,” recalls Colella. In the early 1990s, Ronald Druker, who had been looking for an experienced general manager, discovered Colella through a third party and contacted him. “While my family and I were happily settled, the opportunity to work with greater freedom and directly with an owner proved decisive,” he explains.
The Colonnade's recently enlarged Huntington Ballroom.
Within six months after returning to Boston, Colella reconnected with his alma mater in a big way. “In a very short span I connected with a number of fellow alumni—including former brothers from Kappa Sigma—both inside and outside the hotel industry.” Colella also befriended basketball coach John Calipari, with whom he remains close friends, and became a member of the HTM (formerly HRTA) Advisory Board. “As a student, I majored in marketing. I wanted to wind up as a vice president of marketing for a large consumer products firm. International Marketing Professor Bertil Liander offered more realistic expectations: You’re going to start out in sales, he predicted. So I interviewed for sales positions with P&G and other companies.” At the same time, another influence was at work. “Many of my friends were HRTA majors. After graduation, I began a career in hotel sales for Dunfey Hotels at the Parker House Hotel in Boston. [Dunfey changed its name to Omni Hotels after acquiring Omni International in 1983.] It didn’t take me long to realize that what I really wanted was a career in hotel operations.” At the Parker House, Colella came in on weekends to learn the hotel’s desk and backroom operations. After subsequent training within Dunfey’s satellite training program, Colella’s career was on track.
“Having divided my career between Omni Hotels, The Levy Organization and The Colonnade Hotel, I’m happy to be where I am,” emphasizes Colella. “There’s been so much consolidation in the hotel industry that independent hotels have become an endangered species. The Colonnade’s success, I think, has vindicated our own business model, not for all hotels, but certainly for some with upscale, local-market niches like our own.”
Featured in this article:
 Jonathan Crellin '87 |  Rick Colangelo '84 | David Colella '75 |
 Denise Coll '76 |  Bruce Leaver '81 |
HTM Advisory Board Member List | |