A HOTEL THAT KICKSTARTER BUILT
Greg Hennes combined his photographic eye and his art friends to crowdfund a boutique hotel, The Jennings.
JOSEPH, OR
Since 1910 The Jennings Building had been a landmark on Main Street in Joseph, Oregon. Over the century the building housed many ventures to serve the changing needs of this rural community in Wallowa County. The historical building was vacant and in extreme disrepair when it “found” Greg Hennes in 2014.
“If you ask anyone in Wallowa County for a while, they have a story about that building.”
Greg was a photographer who journeyed back and forth from Portland to explore the natural wonders of Joseph, Oregon. Each time Greg visited he fell more in love with the quaint city nestled inside the U-shaped valley of the Wallowa Mountains. After four years of visiting, Greg purchased The Jennings in 2014 with traditional financing from an open minded local bank.
“It took me four years of looking at this place before deciding to take it on. Everything starts with imagination but doing takes doing.”
Greg secured the property knowing that he’d have to get creative to take the project to the vision he had in mind. He used Kickstarter as a spring board, something he’d never tried before, and it was successful. Greg raised $107,070 on an $80,000 goal. With a funded campaign Greg was suddenly an accidental hotelier. The creative conversations now became a never-sending series of adult conversations to make the dream a reality.
The central premise of The Jennings was to have an art filled hotel, complete with an artist residency, and rooms filled with custom art & design from his group of creative friends. Greg leaned on his photographic eye and the creative skills of others to pull this off.
The list of artistic contributions is wild: built-in furniture, an artist designed sauna, leather wall pouches, stuffed sofas, boomboxes with curated tapes, woolen blankets, custom benches, shaker chairs, lofted beds, wall quilts, ornate sconces, and more.
With the help of a talented group of friends The Jennings has been transformed from a derelict apartment building into an outpost for artists and a beacon of considered design and gracious hospitality in the mountainous hinterlands of Northeast Oregon. The Jennings was a journey with passion, collaboration and community. Equal parts accommodation and art project, you're likely to find new friends passing the ukulele around at a family supper, artists in residence sharing their work and superbly considered spaces, all under our roof.
VIDEO SHORT
KICKSTARTER
DISCUSSION
There’s a saying in business, “You have to start with a fortune to make one”. But sometimes resourcefulness can take the place of resources. As creators, we often have access to an incredible community of talented, passionate, like-minded people who want us to win. Greg used his network of art friends to come up a set of intentional products and experiences for his Kickstarter campaign, and so his collaborators had a vested interest in his campaign being funded.
Q: Who can you involve in your campaign? How can you win together?
Greg had a very specific ask when he used Kickstarter: stay in the hotel. In total he pre-sold nearly 700 nights of lodging and was able to use those funds to build out the space.
Q: What platforms are right for your ask? What are you asking for?