Salamander Has a Five-Star Rating, and GM Cooper was there for nine years, promoted to general manager is grandfather was and was involved in developing the man in charge at condominiums and expanding the iconic Royal York the resort’s spa to 35,000 square Hotel in Toronto. feet, the largest in New England. His father ran the luxurious “It was a fun place and we had Fairmont Hotel in Banff Springs. a great time there,” he said. “It’s So no surprise that Reggie the place where I really got into Cooper, the grandson and son the luxury resort business.” of hotel lifers, is now general Then came one more move, manager of Middleburg’s perhaps the most fortuitous of Salamander Resort & Spa. all. He went to the Canyon Ranch A Canadian native, Cooper, in Lennox, Massachusetts, now 52, was a ski racer talented an upscale resort focusing on enough to make the team at the health and wellness. “I could University of Colorado, where have stayed there to the end of he earned a degree in resort my career,” Cooper said. “Then I management. met Mrs. Johnson.” Following graduation, he That would be Sheila Photo by Leonard Shapiro worked in a Toronto-based Reggie Cooper is the general manager at Johnson, Salamander’s restaurant company, then decided founder/owner. She’d been Salamander Resort & Spa. “I didn’t want to be in a city any a Canyon Ranch guest, and more. I set out to find a place with green, open space.” Cooper soon was making a visit to her Middleburg He moved to Maine to handle sales and marketing property and was blown away. at a small ski resort near the New Hampshire border. “When I saw the place, the beautiful detail Cooper stayed five years, played a significant role in everywhere and her dream to create a five-star number of skiers go from 87,000 lift rides a year property that would be thought of as one of the great when he arrived to 550,000 when he left. resorts in the country, I was very impressed. This He then had an opportunity to do more of the same was a very unique opportunity. I told my wife Linda at the Topnotch Resort in Stowe, Vermont, one of the I was definitely ready for this kind of challenge. premier facilities on the East Coast in a ski mecca town. “I didn’t know a lot about the region. But I saw the By Leonard Shapiro
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proximity to airports, to a Middle Atlantic customer base and affluent travelers. And when I got to know Mrs. Johnson, that sealed it. She’s just an incredibly dynamic entrepreneur and I definitely was aligned with what she wanted to do.” Cooper is now in his fifth year at Salamander. His initial focus was to provide guests the highest possible level of service, as well as to grow the sales and marketing effort to pull in corporate business. The resort now has a respectable 70 percent occupancy rate, and Cooper said there is a strong local presence in the use of its spa, equestrian center and restaurants. “We also had to create programs to attract people,” he said. “Guests can play golf at Creighton Farms. We’ve got the zip line, great equestrian facilities, a wonderful spa. We’re in an area with history trails, beautiful places to go hiking and biking, and the number of wineries has exploded.” Cooper and his staff of 330 were rewarded for their efforts last February when the prestigious Forbes Travel Guide gave Salamander a five-star rating, one of only 270 such facilities world-wide. Johnson owns six different major hotel and resort properties, and Cooper was asked if running one of therm may also be in his future. “This is a very special place,” he said of Salamander. “Everywhere I’ve worked, I always say it’s the most beautiful place and the best community I’ve ever been. Then I decide to move and I say the same thing. But it’s hard to imagine anything better than this. I love this place.”
C ompass Twenty-Fourth Anniversary Season
2019-2020
JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT CONCERT: SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2019 - 3PM
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Highland School’s Michael A. Hughes Center for the Arts
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Audience Sing Along! RESPIGHI - Three Botticelli Pictures: Adoration of the Magi VIVALDI - Triple Violin Concerto " H. Lee Brewster, Jason Labrador, Matthew Gattuso - Soloists HANDEL - The Messiah - AUDIENCE SING-ALONG!
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Country ZEST & Style | Holiday 2019
