QW ESOP Trust a Rare Example of Sharing the Work, Sharing the Wealth

By: Glenn Hasek, Green Lodging News
March 3, 2017

If a green lodging hall of fame existed, Dennis Quaintance would certainly be in it. I first chatted with Dennis almost 10 years ago when his Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels (QW) was building the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, N.C. At that time the goal was LEED Gold for the 147-room property that features a solar hot water heating system on its roof and other energy-saving features. The Proximity later became the first hotel to earn the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Platinum level of certification. Quite an achievement.

This past fall, Dennis and the other founders of QW announced that, after 28 years of operating one of the top-rated hotel and restaurant companies in the South, they had sold 100 percent of their company to its 600+ staff members. The sale made the company one of only a few employee-owned restaurant and hotel companies in the United States and generated a lot of local media buzz. (TPI Hospitality in Willmar, Minn. is also employee owned.) “We’ve sold our interest in QW to the QW ESOP Trust because we believe that it’s the optimal way for QW to be owned and managed in the future,” Dennis said in a press release about the sale.

An Employee Stock Ownership Plan is a program that offers a company’s staff members an ownership stake in the company. This sort of ESOP is actually a trust that’s been created to purchase 100 percent of the equity in the company in order to provide retirement benefits for the company’s staff members. After one year with the company, staff members age 18 and above who work 20+ hours a week start accruing retirement units. They will be fully vested after just three years.

Even before the sale, there was a lot of evidence employees liked working for QW. More than 50 staff members at QW have been with the company more than 10 years.

Business Approach to Remain the Same

“Our priorities here at QW will remain the same,” Dennis says. “In other words, having a sincere intention to be of genuine service to our guests will stay as our company’s highest priority, with a close second priority of being of genuine service to our QW colleagues. Our third-highest priority is to be of genuine service to our owners. Now, via the ESOP, our owners are our staff members, so our second and third priorities are sort of combined!”

According to QW, the QW ESOP Trust is a natural next step for the community-based, locally owned company. It fits perfectly with QW’s Sustainable Practices Initiative, which considers how company decisions affect current and future generations, as well as their Fairness Doctrine for diversity and inclusion.

The QW ESOP trust now owns the QW operating companies, not any real estate. QW leases its restaurants and it manages the hotels for a fee. That has been the structure all along. There will not be any significant operational or leadership changes as a result of this ESOP program.

Succession planning becomes part of every company’s business strategy at some point. “Handing over the keys” has got to be much easier when you have such a talented group of employees to carry on the company’s mission. This all certainly would not have happened without the leadership of Dennis and the other QW founders: Mike Weaver and Nancy King Quaintance. A big tip of the hat to them all.

Jessica’s Mash-Up

The many hats of Jessica Mashburn

By Brian Clarey, Triad City Beat
August 10, 2017

Tonight Jessica Mashburn is a DJ, posted in the raised corner of the lounge at Print Works Bistro while a genuine disco ball throws raindrops of light across the walls.

The regulars show precisely at 10 p.m. to this pop-up dance party; 45 minutes in, they’re keeping three bartenders and a cocktail waitress hopping with complicated drink orders as dancers fight for space on the floor before the DJ stand. By 11 p.m., the first conga line snakes past the wait station and through the lounge.

“Happy anniversary, Crystal and Jeff!” she shouts through the mic.

The party ends at 1 a.m., so Mashburn’s taking them up a steep curve with some classic disco and a little Bollywood before dropping “Despacito,” Luis Fonsi’s slow-burn dancehall grind with Damn Yankee — the version without Justin Bieber. The number incites vigorous activity on the dance floor, where sweat and hormones are starting to flow.

“[This song] will be requested four or five more times tonight,” Mashburn says as an aside to a reporter.

And then it’s “Dancing Queen,” by Abba, and women take turns standing on the raised platform in front of her DJ stand, dancing to the appreciative crowd.

See that girl. Watch that scene. Dig the dancing queen.

“Abba-dabba do it!” Mashburn implores from her perch.

She’s forsaken her usual headgear tonight — a collection of hats, headdresses and fascinators that take up an entire wall of the bedroom she’s appropriated into a costume closet — her hair now in low pigtails and a pair of oversize, pink-tinted glasses that wouldn’t look out of place resting on the nose of Elton John. She’s bouncing and sliding, pumping and rolling her arms so enthusiastically it looks like she might be sneaking in a workout.

The night wears on as a soft, coppery rain falls on the fancy cars in the parking lot and a patron hustles outside to put the top up on his convertible. The demographic swirls with young professionals, empty-nest scenesters and veteran club-hoppers, not too young and not too old, with nowhere else to go on a Friday night.

“There’s not a lot of classy places in town to go dancing,” Mashburn says. Where craft beer, tattoos and local bands are the cultural mainstream, the pop-up dance crowd in Greensboro is a genuine subculture.

She identified and built this scene through hustle and drive, landing it at Print Works, whose parent company, Quaintance-Weaver Mashburn has been associated with since she used to wait tables at the Green Valley Grill more than a decade ago. Now she regularly works wedding receptions here at the Proximity Hotel and the O. Henry Hotel, both as a DJ and performer, and programs all the music for other QW properties.

And then there’s this pop-up dance party, a way to make the party public.

It’s got the feel of a great wedding reception, a country-club social, the nightclub of a high-end cruise ship, a high-school reunion afterparty. Jessica Mashburn owns it: their diva, their interlocutor, their dancing queen.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” she shouts into the mic, “Lexie is getting married tomorrow!”

Wooooooo!

Upstairs in the Midtown home she shares with fellow performer Evan Olson, across from his studio in the loft, she keeps her finery.

There’s a wall of costumes, every one she’s ever made: a Wonder Woman suit, a Rockford peaches uniform from A League of Their Own, along with patterned dresses and separates in a full rainbow. The top shelf tumbles with headpieces, some she made for High Point Furniture Market with couches and dressers, others for New Year’s Eve, one for the last episode of “TheLate Show with David Letterman,” another with the five Olympic rings. She made one of a literal house of cards, to commemorate both the Netflix show and the precarious nature of our government. And there’s one she made just last month, the “Spy-crowave,” a shot at the Russia scandal enveloping the Trump White House.

There are pillboxes and sun hats, boas and beads, masks, tiaras, false flowers for her hair, wigs, a cascade of party shoes. Brooches, scarves, wraps, medallions, colors that mimic the brightly colored houses in certain Caribbean neighborhoods.

It’s difficult to tell if the wardrobe is part of her act, or if her act is an extension of the wardrobe.

Mashburn dresses to suit the gig. She plays the chanteuse when she works with Dave Fox’s jazz trio, provides a colorful counterpoint to Olson’s minimalist fashion sense in their AM rOdeO sets, goes full-on Mardi Gras when she’s alone behind the piano. When she sang “America the Beautiful” and the National Anthem before a Grasshoppers game in May, she wore a stylish blue jacket and a short, full, blue houndstooth skirt. When she performed her original piece about repealing HB 2 onstage at Birdland in New York City, she wore a little black dress belted in red with a matching red cardigan. And a swan on her head.

She was born to do this, whatever this is.

Mashburn’s parents are bluegrass musicians whose friends filled her childhood home in Greensboro with that high, lonesome sound. Her father played bass for the Carter Brothers. Her mother was one of the first organizers of Merlefest.

They taught her to play piano, and from there she ascended through the the Music Academy of North Carolina in Greensboro before completing her education at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, NC, with a brief stopover at UNCG.

When she was still a student at Southeast Guilford High School, she used to watch her mother spin records at Bench Tavern. Somewhere along the line she learned to tap dance, work a room, write a song and make a hat.

Now she sings and plays guitar, piano and a little bit of mandolin; she could probably do a serviceable job on a drum kit, if you put her behind one. She’s got an accordion she’s trying to wrangle a nice sound out of, and a violin she’s been trying to play, she says, her whole life.

The result is a weird mix between Lady Gaga and Shirley Temple, David Bowie and Liza Minelli, Nancy Sinatra and the New York Dolls. And if she can’t find a stage for it, she will make it happen.

She plays the solo shows on piano and in the duo with Olson, and holds down vocals with a jazz combo. She takes the wedding gigs as DJ and master of ceremonies, and as an officiant can even consecrate a marriage. She pops onstage at Birdland like a seasoned pro and will even play your birthday party if she can fit it into her schedule. She’s been asked to take part in stage musicals, but she can never find the time.

She’s booked 16 gigs just this month, between the regular Tuesday night AM rOdeO gigs at Print Works, semi-regular slots in the lobby lounge at the Grandover Resort, private events at the Greensboro Country Club and the Wyndham Tournament and a one-off at the Greensboro Public Library for the One City/One Book Fashion Show & Dance Party.

And if she doesn’t have the perfect outfit for each one, she will make that happen, too,

It’s the night before the pop-up, and though she’s got no gigs on the calendar there is still work to be done.

Tonight Mashburn is a songwriter, sitting at the piano in her living room while late-afternoon sun streams through the windows.

“Mueller,” she sings softly above a D-minor 7 chord. “Oh Mueller,” and then the notes move up the C-major scale. “It’s Mueller time… what will he find….”

She stops.

“What rhymes with subpoena?”

The day’s news saw the announcement of Special Investigator Robert Mueller’s grand jury, which has been hearing evidence about possible collusion between the Trump administration and Russia.

Mashburn’s no fan of the president or his party — she and Olson have a short catalog of political material, though it’s more the Smothers Brothers variety than Phil Ochs. She uses social media, too, to make her opinions heard. Some of it finds its way into her act, always tempered with humor.

“All the great political protest songs have already been written,” she says. “And when people come to see me, they expect a little humor. I think it’s the best to write political songs that sound kitschy, like ‘Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.’”

She rhymes Trump with, “What a dump,” works “Katrina” in there to resolve the “subpoena” issue and casts a verse that glances off the infamous “Pee Pee Tape” and OJ Simpson.

Mashburn says she left UNCG’s music program because it relied so much on classical training and performance, while at Sandhills she could concentrate on music theory.

“I wanted to learn how to be a gigging musician,” she says. “If someone says, ‘Let’s play “Mustang Sally” in C,’ I didn’t want to need the sheet music.”

She started performing right away, eventually landing slots with UBU out of Jamestown and Billy Scott & the Prophets, two regionally touring bands that brought her from southern Florida to Atlantic City, NJ.

“Then I wanted to somehow create a career that was mainly in my own ZIP code,” she says. “You sleep in your car in a Walmart parking lot enough times, that will happen.”

Tonight’s a rare night off from the stage — she gigged with Olson last night and the pop-up isn’t until tomorrow. There’s a DJ slot in two nights at a private party in Summerfield, and then it’s back on the grind by Wednesday.

Maybe the Mueller piece will be ready by then.

“There’s a man that’s been making the news,” she sings now at the piano to a meandering Broadway beat. “You’d not want to be in the president’s shoes. What will he find? It’s Mueller time.”

The song needs some work, but she’s already got the perfect hat.

15 Charming Cities in the American South You May Have Overlooked

By: Perri Ormont Blumberg, CNN
August 4, 2017

‘GREENEST HOTEL IN AMERICA’: A GREENSBORO HOTEL MAKES CLIMATE-CONSCIOUS TRAVELERS SWOON

By: Brady Dennis, The Washington Post

May 17, 2017

In one sense, the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, N.C., shouts its environmental bona fides from the rooftop.

One of the first sights that greet guests as they turn in to an otherwise nondescript office park off Green Valley Road are the 100 solar panels perched atop the handsome hotel, which from afar looks like an old textile warehouse lovingly brought back to life.

Visitors with low-emitting, fuel-efficient vehicles can pull into a preferred parking spot closer to the front entrance, where a U.S. Green Building Council seal proclaims the hotel’s status as LEED Platinum — a rating reserved for the most energy-efficient of buildings. (The Proximity became the first hotel in the United States to earn the distinction nearly a decade ago, and only a handful have earned it since.)

“We are the greenest hotel in America,” a receptionist enthusiastically informs me from behind a floating front desk in the lobby, pointing out that many of the materials used to build the hotel were regionally sourced and almost all the construction waste was reused or recycled. (Much of the furniture also was produced within 18 miles of the hotel — a feat perhaps easier to pull off in one of the country’s furniture meccas).

In my loftlike room on the Promixity’s top floor, with its stunning floor-to-ceiling windows, exposed concrete walls and towering ceiling, a card on the plush king-size bed details more of the hotel’s Earth-loving ways.

“Chances are the hot water you enjoy will be heated by today’s or yesterday’s sunlight!” it reads.

I learn that the hotel circulates “fresh yet filtered” outside air to its guest rooms year-round, that the elevators are “the first in North America to generate electricity as they descend to use for the ascent,” that high-efficiency faucets and toilets reduce water usage by 33 percent, that the hotel overall uses roughly 40 percent less electricity than a conventional hotel and that the kitchen in the downstairs restaurant uses a geothermal cooling system.

It’s quite a pitch. Enough to make a climate-conscious traveler swoon, or an ordinary traveler’s head spin with the earnestness of it all.

Luckily for travelers of every kind, that card on the bed made another promise: “You won’t sacrifice one iota of luxury or comfort because of our commitment to sustainable practices. We believe that deprivation is not sustainable.”

Not to worry. There is no deprivation in the proximity of Proximity.

The furniture might be locally manufactured and the construction materials carefully recycled, but sitting in the hotel’s airy two-story lobby one afternoon, I was struck not by the sustainability of it all but by the serenity. The chairs and couches were comfortable and inviting. White orchids hung from the walls. Natural light spilled in from massive windows, which overlooked an interior garden brimming with bluebells and flowering magnolias.

Later, in the adjacent Print Works Bistro — a cozy restaurant that could have been plucked from a Paris side street — I frankly gave little thought that the bar had been made from salvaged walnut trees, the service trays from Plyboo (bamboo plywood) or the drink coasters from cut up pieces of cardboard. Rather, I spent much more time savoring the perfectly seared hanger steak, locally sourced vegetables and a beer from a nearby brewery.

This is how it was intended to be, according to Proximity’s enthusiastic, idealistic-but-practical co-owner, Dennis Quaintance, who along with his wife, Nancy King Quaintance, conceived of the hotel. In part thinking about the sort of legacy they wanted to leave for their twin children, the couple decided to build a hotel centered on sustainable practices, but not one known only for that.

“I want people to know about it when they are booking the hotel. But I don’t want them to notice it once they’re there,” Dennis Quaintance tells me when I call him a few days after my stay. “That’s the best of both worlds.”

The Quaintances, who also own the nearby O. Henry Hotel and several restaurants, oversaw every detail of the Proximity, right down to the low-flow toilets they finally decided upon after testing out different models in their own home week after week. The “commode du jour,” their daughter called the rotating models in the bathroom near the family kitchen.

A decade later, Dennis Quaintance — a man who walks the several miles from his home to his hotels most days — has become an ambassador for making sustainable choices.

“It’s a myth, absolutely a myth, that it’s more expensive,” he says, noting that the couple recouped any higher upfront construction costs in about four years by what they saved in tax credits and lower energy costs. After all, they are business executives first. “It’s not sustainable to go broke,” he says.

A decade on, the couple has continued their eco-conscious ways. For instance, they employ more than a half-dozen craftspeople in a studio not far from the Proximity. There, worn out chairs get reupholstered and refreshed rather than scrapped and replaced. An artist-in-residence makes charcoal-on-canvas sketches that adorn guest rooms and common areas. The group also builds custom furnishings for the hotel — antiqued mirrors, one-of-a-kind tables, cabinets, chairs and lampshades — that are more unique and typically less expensive than buying from outside vendors.

“To me, it just seems more soulful, more authentic,” Quaintance says.

And that’s the difference. The solar panels, the high-efficiency plumbing, the salvaged wood and recycled construction materials — it’s an admirable, Earth-friendly approach, not to mention an apparently astute business decision.

But I suspect what prompts so many of Proximity’s visitors to make return visits has very little to do with its carbon footprint and a lot to do with its undeniable charm.

Authenticity and soul, it turns out, might be the most sustainable qualities of all.

QUAINTANCE-WEAVER UNVEILS ITS CRAFT GUILD’S LATEST HOTEL AND RESTAURANT FURNISHINGS

By: John Brasier, Triad Business Journal 

May 10, 2017

Where does CEO Dennis Quaintance get all the custom furnishings in his company’s O.Henry and Proximity hotels or his Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen, Green Valley Grill or Print Works Bistro dining establishments?

Not from a wholesaler or vendor. From chairs, tables, cabinets and mirrors to lampshades, coat hooks and painting screws, Greensboro-based Quaintance-Weaver’s in-house craft guild designs and produces the unique furnishings and specialty items that help set the luxury hotels and upscale restaurants apart.

But here’s the kicker: Not only are the furnishings custom-made; often, they’re significantly less expensive to make than they would be to buy from someone else.

As an example, Quaintance pointed to refinished countertops at Proximity done by the craft guild that would have cost “three times more” if done outside the company.

“Bottom line, we’re finding we can build things that are unique and more durable,” Quaintance said. “The overall mission of the craft guild is to supply superior products at less cost. Most hotel owners just buy.”

Founded after Promixity opened late in 2007, the guild produces most of the furnishings and decorative items for the company’s hotels and restaurants out of a workshop on East Lindsay Street.

Led by general manager Jeff Kennedy, the guild includes a handful of full-time QW staffers, including “artist-in-residence” Chip Holton, with various skills and a collection of “adjuncts.”

Holton’s charcoal-on-canvas sketches — they will soon be colored — adorn the walls in each room at Proximity.

Quaintance said he believes the well-traveled executives who frequent his Greensboro hotels notice the unique designs and detailed craftsmanship.

Quaintance estimates the guild has done 100 projects at Proximity, the first facility in the hospitality industry to receive LEED Platinum status from the U.S. Green Building Council for its energy efficiency and high performance.

“Many of our guests stay in hotels 100 days a year,” he said. “We think when something is made by people who are sort of soulfully with it — not like a production-line thing — and built especially for the space its going in, people notice.”

GREENSBORO HOTEL, RESTAURANT INNOVATORS HONORED

Cooking Class: Print Works Bistro

By Amanda

Cuisine & Screen, November 19, 2012

I had the privilege of attending Chef Leigh Hesling’s final cooking class for 2012 at Print Works Bistro, and I don’t know how I’ll make it to January 2013, when the next round of classes begins. This was the most fun Saturday I’ve had in a long time, thanks to Chef Hesling’s charming personality, festive and flavorful dishes, and my new favorite wine.

Some of Chef Hesling’s classes take place at Green Valley Grill, but the one I attended was held in a room at Print Works that typically hosts wedding receptions, and features a beautiful view of Greensboro. Several tables were draped with white tablecloths and decorated with flowers in a pumpkin “vase.” (These were raffled off at the end of the class, along with gift cards to both restaurants AND an overnight stay at the Proximity Hotel!) Upon our arrival, my companion and I were offered a refreshing pink cocktails, “The Local Beet.” The earthiness of the beet and the tartness of the lemon were more pronounced than the flavor of the gin, which I appreciated. I knew we were in for a top afternoon

Chef Hesling answered questions throughout the demonstrations, and made for a very delightful “emcee.” The first course was a duo of bisque-y soups, screaming with flavors of the season. And here’s the kicker — they’re served side by side in the same bowl. Butternut Squash Bisque reaches for sweeter notes, thanks to nutmeg and honey, while Truffled Cauliflower Soup gets robust flavor from truffle oil (king of the culinary world), and chive oil enhances both soups. After keeping the “boys and girls at the dance” separate long enough, I was daring enough to try both on my spoon at once and liked what I tasted. No dish during the afternoon needed additional seasoning.

Now onto one of the many highlights of the day: Chef Hesling decided to give us a taste of his home with a 2005 Kirrihill “Birchmores Vineyard” Lanhorne Creek Shiraz from Australia. It was love at first sip. The fruity, plum notes were the perfect accompaniment to our entrée, Seafood en Papillote. Grouper filets are baked in parchment paper, with tomatoes, basil pistou and herb butter, and opening the bag is like unwrapping a present. Steam rises up, and notes of basil, butter and white wine hit you. Swiss chard is a healthy and seasonal side, but the Prima Donna Spaetzle is the indulgent, comforting option. This harkened me back to my vacation in Germany — spaetzle is like macaroni and cheese, without the cheesy, runny sauce. Prima Donna Cheese is a cross between Parmesan and Gouda, and the little spaetzli dumplings absorb the flavor well. I cannot wait to impress my friends at my dinner parties with this course.

As if my taste buds couldn’t have been more stimulated, this sinful dessert is one I’ll be making around Valentine’s Day. Dark Chocolate Cherry Crème Brulee is like a brownie custard, with crunchy, browned sugar on top. Decadent. Though the crème brulee was plenty, Madeleines were served alongside — lemony, buttery and wonderful to dunk in coffee.

Though I wasn’t one of the raffle winners, being exposed to such creative, outstanding food was prize enough. No one walked away empty handed — in addition to a copy of each recipe, everyone got a goody bag with pumpkin biscotti dipped in white chocolate! I highly recommend the 2013 Cooking Class Series with Chef Hesling. You’ll leave with handy kitchen skills, new friends and a very pleased stomach.

Print Works is the First LEED® Platinum Restaurant

Proximity & Print Works named the highest rated “Green” hotel and restaurant in America

October 7, 2008 ( Greensboro, NC) — Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels announced today that Print Works Bistro and Proximity Hotel have been awarded LEED Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED is the USGBC’s rating system for designing and constructing the world’s greenest, most energy efficient, and high performing buildings. Opened in late 2007, Proximity Hotel and Print Works Bistro are the first in the hospitality industry to obtain the USGBC’s top level of certification.

Dennis Quaintance , the CEO and CDO (Chief Design Officer) of Quaintance-Weaver, is obviously delighted. “When we started the design process four years ago, I would have never believed that we could use 41% less energy and 33% less water without one iota of compromise in comfort or luxury and with minimal additional construction costs,” says Quaintance. “It just goes to show what a determined team can accomplish if they use common sense and get a little bit of help from the sun.”

His “sun” comment refers to the 100 solar rooftop panels that heat water for the AAA Four Diamond hotel. To illustrate how the hotel and bistro save energy without negatively affecting guest comfort, he asks, “How is it a compromise for a guest to shower with water that is heated by the sun? Or, how is it a compromise for a bistro guest if his or her dishes are washed with solar heated water?”

Quaintance collaborated with his subcontractors on every little detail and personally tested most products. “We tested so many different toilets at home that our children were anxious to see what they called the ‘commode du jour’,” he says. “We finally found one that works wonderfully and uses a third of a gallon less with each flush, and it did not cost one cent more than a conventional toilet.”

The rigorous testing for a variety of water saving products is paying off. The hotel and restaurant is on track to use two million gallons less water during the first year, saving more than $13,000 by spending less than $7,000 in additional construction costs.

“I’ve come to believe that it is an urban legend that employing sustainable practices with new construction is too expensive,” concludes Quaintance. “We are very happy with the results, including the costs and returns, of everything that we did. It’s not easy — but it’s not hard. And it’s definitely worth it.”

Proximity and Print Works did not attain this milestone by just using less energy and water. They also:

• Recycled 87% of the construction debris (1,535 tons)
• Sourced over 40% of the building materials locally
• Used over 20% recycled content
• Restored 700 feet of an adjacent stream
• Installed the first regenerative drive elevators in North America, generating electricity on the descent for the ascent
• Provided natural lighting (day-lighting) to 97% of the occupied space
• Used elaborate energy recovery systems to provide large amounts of fresh outside air to all guests
• Sourced 90% of the furniture locally
• Commissioned local artists and craftspeople for original art in every guestroom, a cantilevered reception desk, spiral staircases in the lobby, furniture and accessories
• Plus more than 60 other sustainable practices

LEED certification covers energy use, lighting, water and material use as well as incorporating a variety of other sustainable strategies. LEED verifies environmental performance, occupant health and financial return. LEED was established for market leaders to design & construct buildings that protect and save precious resources while also making good economic sense.

“Proximity Hotel is especially to be commended for achieving LEED Platinum. This facility is one that both the community and its guests can be proud of,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO, Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “Proximity is a showcase for high-performance, energy-efficient, healthy environment, and an inspiration for others.”

Officials from the USGBC will present the LEED Platinum plaque to the Proximity and Print Works Bistro at a ceremony at the hotel on November 10. On that same day, Proximity will hold its second Sustainable Practices Symposium, a three-hour discussion and tour about the design and building process using the LEED criteria. There is no charge for attendance, but advance registration at www.proximityhotel.com is required.

Built and operated by Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels, Print Works Bistro and Proximity Hotel are just a stone’s throw away from its sister businesses, Lucky 32 Kitchen and Wine Bar, Green Valley Grill and the Four Diamond O.Henry Hotel.  

About the U.S. Green Building Council
The U.S. Green Building Council is a nonprofit membership organization whose vision is a sustainable built environment within a generation. Its membership includes corporations, builders, universities, government agencies, and other nonprofit organizations. Since UGSBC’s founding in 1993, the Council has grown to more than 17,000 member companies and organizations, a comprehensive family of LEED® green building rating systems, an expansive educational offering, the industry’s popular Greenbuild International Conference and Expo (www.greenbuildexpo.org), and a network of 78 local chapters, affiliates, and organizing groups. For more information, visit www.usgbc.org.

About LEED®
The LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ is a feature-oriented rating system that awards buildings points for satisfying specified green building criteria. The six major environmental categories of review include: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality and Innovation and Design. Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels of LEED green building certification are awarded based on the total number of points earned within each LEED category. LEED can be applied to all building types including new construction, commercial interiors, core & shell developments, existing buildings, homes, neighborhood developments, schools and retail facilities.

Incentives for LEED are available at the state and local level and LEED has also been adopted nationwide by federal agencies, state and local governments, and interested private companies. For more information, visit www.usgbc.org/LEED.

More About Sustainable Practices at Proximity and Print Works:
Here is a sampling of the 70+ sustainable practices at Proximity Hotel & Print Works Bistro:

• The building uses 41% less energy than a conventional hotel/restaurant by using ultra efficient materials and the latest construction technology.
• The sun’s energy heats hot water with 100 solar panels covering the 4,000 square feet of rooftop (enough hot water for a hundred homes).
• 700 linear feet of stream was restored by reducing erosion, planting local, adaptable plant species and rebuilding the buffers and banks. Approximately 700 cubic yards of soil was removed to create a floodplain bench. And 376 tons of boulders and 18 logs were used to maintain grade control, dissipate energy and assist in the creation and maintenance of riffles and pools.
• Tabletops in the Bistro are made of salvaged, solid walnut trees that came down through sickness or storm and room service trays made of Plyboo (bamboo plywood).
• Newly-engineered variable speed hoods in the restaurant uses a series of sensors to set the power according to the kitchen’s needs and adjusts to a lower level of operation (typically 25% of their full capacity). The sensors also detect heat, smoke or other effluents and increase the fan speed to keep the air fresh.
• Geothermal energy is used for the restaurant’s refrigeration equipment, instead of a standard water-cooled system, saving significant amounts of water.
• North America’s first Regenerative Drive model of the Otis’ Gen2 elevator reduces net energy usage by capturing the system’s energy and feeds it back into the building’s internal electrical grid.
• Abundant natural lighting, including large energy-efficient “operable” windows (7’4” square windows in guest rooms), connects guests to the outdoors by achieving a direct line of sight to the outdoor environment for more than 97% of all regularly occupied spaces.
• Building materials with recycled content include reinforced steel with 90% post consumer recycled content, sheetrock 100%, asphalt 25% and staircase steel 50%. Concrete contains 4% fly ash (224,000 pounds), the mineral residue left after the combustion of coal that is diverted from landfills.
• 87% of construction waste was recycled, diverting 1,535 tons of debris from landfills.
• Water usage has been reduced by 33% by installing high-efficiency Kohler plumbing fixtures, saving two million gallons of water the first year.
• Air quality improved by circulating large amounts of outside air into guestrooms (60 cubic feet per minute) and doing so in an energy efficient way by employing “energy recovery” technology where the outside air is tempered by the air being exhausted.
• Regional vendors and artists were used for materials to reduce transportation and packaging.
• Low-emitting volatile organic compound (VOC) paints, adhesives, carpets, etc reduces indoor air contamination.
• Guestroom shelving is made of walnut SkyBlend, particleboard made from 100% post-industrial recycled wood pulp with no added formaldehyde.
• A green, vegetated rooftop will be planted on the restaurant to reduce the “urban heat island effect.” In other words, the green roof reflects the heat, thus reducing the amount of energy needed for refrigeration and/or air conditioning. It also slows the rain runoff and insulates the rooftop, keeping the building cooler overall. Currently, we trying out various plants on the roof in a test area.
• “Education Center” for sustainable practices includes tours of our “green” hotel for guests and outreach programs for students of all ages.

A Green Hotel Leaves a Sustainable Legacy

A hotel exec in North Carolina finds that investing in solar and energy efficiency makes good business sense.

By: Justin Catanoso, Yale Climate Connections
January 18, 2017
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The Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the country’s first hotel to achieve LEED platinum status – the Green Building Council’s highest certification. And that wasn’t even the goal!

Quaintance: “The only ambition was, let’s sincerely consider sustainable practices with each of our decisions.”

That’s Dennis Quaintance, CEO of Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels. After his children were born, he and his wife considered the legacy they would leave behind and committed to running a sustainable as well as financially sound company. To do so, they used a single question to guide all major decisions.

Quaintance: “Is there a sustainable angle that’s practical?”

This led to the construction of a hotel with rooftop solar panels to heat water, ultra-efficient appliances to reduce energy use, and elevators that actually generate power. Many of these choices were more expensive than traditional options. But as a result, the Proximity uses almost 40 percent less energy than other hotels its size.

Within only four years, the extra costs paid for themselves in energy savings and tax credits. So the result is a hotel that’s both sustainable and profitable.

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media.

AUTHOR
Justin Catanoso is a professor of journalism at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who specializes in covering climate change internationally.

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