In 1926, a man named John “Jack” McKibbon Jr., along with his brother Marvin, teamed up and opened a franchise location of Piggly Wiggly in Gainesville, Georgia.
This was the start of the McKibbon enterprise, the springboard for McKibbon Hospitality, based in Tampa.
John McKibbon III is currently chair of the board of McKibbon and enjoys traveling to, and from, the Bahamas to bask in the beauty of the Caribbean, and Tampa Bay. J.B. McKibbon IV, president of McKibbon Equities, resides in Tampa with his wife, Michele, and two children, Karmen and John V.
There is an incredible story to the family business, which spans several generations. The story of fathers and their sons, and the legacy journey to hospitality fame.
Bridgette Bello, chief executive officer and publisher of Tampa Bay Business and Wealth, interviewed John and J.B., in front of a live audience, at Hyatt House, in Tampa. This interview has been edited for length and brevity.
See photos from the event here.
Bello: What has it been like being on the cover of TBBW this month?
John: First of all, Bridgette, you and your team have really been amazing. Great job on the article, along with the professionalism. I’ve learned a lot with this [experience] and I’ve had a number of people reach out who saw the article. Just really a great job. Thank you.
J.B.: I just want to mirror that and say thank you to the whole TBBW team. It’s just flattering to read the article. I thought you guys did an exceptional job and so many good positive comments from people you wouldn’t expect from people that you know who are readers, random texts or people. The feedback has been great.
Bello: The number one thing that I have heard, since we published the article, is how many people were not aware of McKibbon Equities. I want to give you an opportunity to educate people on what McKibbon equities is.
J.B.: Our company has fallen into three verticals that we operate in. We have the management group, that manages over 100 hotels today, that Randy [Hassen] operates. We have a project management group, and they develop our hotels, do the project management, as well as renovations, and they do third party work. So if you decide, you want to be a hotel guy, but don’t know how to build a hotel, they can help you out. And then, the third group is McKibbon Equities. And really our job, and my job, is to raise funds and find projects to deploy those funds, specifically in the hospitality space. So, traditionally, the core business of our company has been development, ground up development, from scratch…find the dirt, entitle it, find the money, build it, run it and eventually sell it or maybe hold it forever.
Bello: Was that a dig? [Laughter]
John: Always. These guys are always trying to sell my hotels. And I go, ‘Hey, don’t you know how hard it was to put this thing together and build this thing and you want to just sell it?’
J.B.: I do know how hard it is to build them, at this point, but there’s a right time and place for everything and for potential investors in the group. We do have eventual exits, I promise, but we’re opening up our horizons to also be an acquirer of hotels. And we learn markets, understand markets and we’re trying to match supply and demand, and make a good return in the hospitality space doing that. There are many markets that you just cannot economically develop in, but there are good markets and opportunities to buy into those markets. We’ve started a new acquisition fund. We have already bought one hotel with that fund. That’s a way to continue to grow the company, in a challenging environment, where it’s more difficult to do development, but we’re going to continue to develop. That’s at our core. That’s in the DNA. Certainly what I get a lot of personal gratification out of doing.
Bello: You have a hotel in Cape Canaveral that you were excited to talk about. What was the impetus behind that?
J.B.: What attracted me to that market is that I’m a big Elon Musk fan and SpaceX does the majority of their launches out of Cape Canaveral. Aerospace has really grown. After the shuttle program died, that market kind of died. And with SpaceX coming back that helped drive the market. Additionally, the cruise business has been seeing a dramatic improvement. Port Canaveral is now the number one leisure cruise port in the world, past Miami and Fort Lauderdale. So there’s a core demand for people who are going to that market for those reasons and a diverse basket of goods. But then, selfishly, I get to go out there, I get to be a part of that business and see rocket launches and the cruise ships going out and it’s amazing.
Bello: John, you talked a lot about the importance of hiring the right people. I was blown away by the number of people that have been with you for 40-plus years. Talk about the importance of hiring the right people and how that’s impacted your business.
John: The story goes back to when some of my family got out of the business. I needed to hire someone. So I hired Van Herring. This was over 30 years ago. The next year, I hired David Hughes. They ran the finance, but Van was the best operator in the country and he was, at the time, operating all the Holiday Inns, in Atlanta. But that company was in trouble and he was not happy there. I talked him into joining our company and I showed him all of the good hotels we had. Then, when he took the job, he looked at the rest and went, ‘What have I done?’
He pulled it off and those two helped us get the company ready for when we had the opportunity with Marriott. But when you have that kind of talent, people are going to move on and take another job. I didn’t want to run those hotels. So both Van and David became equity partners in the company because when you are an owner in a company, not an employee, but an owner in a company and have equity, well, you’re just not likely to quit because you own the company. I think that’s been the magic for us.
But hiring good people, that’s really the key. You can’t do it by yourself.
Bello: What about once you get them there? We can’t give equity to everybody. So what about your culture is so special that makes people stay?
John: It is how you treat your people. You are not better than anybody else, I don’t care what their job is. And when I was running a hotel, I’d go back and I’d work with a dishwasher sometimes and work with all the different people, and people would see I’m not afraid to do any job that we have and when they see that, they respect that. But really taking care of your folks and loving your employees, really doing things special for your employees, not just because you have to pay them more so they don’t quit, but I mean really, truly caring for your employees. And I think that’s a culture we’ve always had and we have that today.
Bello: John, we talked about there being so many things wrong in this world today and you have one guiding principle. Talk about that principle that leads you and really has brought you and the company to where it is today.
John: My life has not been a smooth road the whole time, but at one point I picked up the Bible and I started reading it and I never put it down. And that really changed my life. You can take the entire Bible and sum it up into: Love God and love your neighbor. And I think if you run your business like that, you use what you learn, which is how to treat people. That’s what I use to guide every decision I make.
Bello: This one is for both of you. If you had the opportunity to go back to a 16-year-old John or J.B., what would you tell them?
J.B.: The main guiding principle for my career, thus far, has been: Be useful and be persistent. I’ve gone through many uncomfortable times in my career and I was doing things that I didn’t really want to do, but hold out hope that if you’re with good companies, they’ll grow you, you’ll grow yourself and, eventually, you’ll be able to do more things that you really enjoy
John: What would I tell a 16-year-old? Don’t do the things I did. I was a real challenge for my parents but, eventually I figured it out and I think most kids do, but certainly there are certain paths you absolutely don’t want to go down. And for young people today, there’s so many temptations. Social media, in my opinion, has some good things, but there’s a lot of negatives about social media. Try to focus on a close group of folks around you that will keep you from doing bad things. I did have one friend who kept me out of some really serious trouble. My dad told me if you have one good friend in your life, one good friend who you can depend on, you’ve done very, very well. And that was some of the best advice that I ever got.
ABOUT ‘CEO CONNECT’
TBBW’s “CEO Connect” series is an exclusive, invitation-only, event that brings together the Tampa Bay area’s top business leaders to meet and mingle. KUDUCOM, Mauldin & Jenkins, The William Stanley Group and Valley Bank were presenting sponsors. The host sponsor was Hyatt House.
TBBW’s video partner is Empowering Creative.
The evening begins with a cocktail reception for about 120 guests, followed by an interview with that month’s cover CEO.
Partnering with TBBW provides an opportunity to network with the area’s business elite, generate new business opportunities and increase brand awareness.
For information about event sponsorship opportunities, email Jason Baker at [email protected].
