by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
One of the traits of a hotel general manager is the ability to understand the workings of every department in the operation, from the executive suite to the engineering department.
That describes Shawn Frisbee, general manager of the Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront on Downtown’s Southbank.
Frisbee began his career in hospitality as an executive chef straight out of college. “It was too hot in the kitchen,” he soon discovered. “So I moved to the front of the house.”
The next step for Frisbee was banquet manager, then food and beverage director, then assistant general manager of a property in Baltimore. His first post was general manager at a 100-room hotel in York, Pa., and Frisbee had mixed emotions about his new location.
“The hotel was ugly as sin but she was beautiful because it was my first job as general manager,” he said.
When he arrived in Jacksonville from Louisville, Ky., about a year ago, Frisbee found that managing a property that opened in 1968 offers what he called “challenges and opportunities.”
That’s particularly true of the construction standards that were common more than 40 years ago. “There is a lot of concrete in this building,” said Frisbee.
The Crowne Plaza is in a constantly evolving state of improvement, the latest being replacing all of the old standard televisions with new flat-screen models. That will lead to the installation of an interactive reader board system that will allow guests to watch television and access social media sites in their rooms, said Frisbee.
He’s optimistic about the future of the hotel and the business in general.
“I think the hotel is well positioned. We have weathered the past two years of a disastrous economy and I think the light at the end of the tunnel is fast approaching,” said Frisbee.
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