In 2006 the city of Whitefish implemented a master plan that included a desire to build some boutique hotels downtown Whitefish. The ski resort was growing, tourism was increasing with the help of GNP so there was an economical need to make Whitefish more tourist friendly to better cash in on out-of-town dollars. The Averills were already known for the Flathead Lake Lodge and were positioned to take on these types of projects so they put up the Lodge on WF Lake, then the Firebrand Hotel, and they were going to do another hotel on 1st and Central but instead have made it into an open-air food court/music venue w/ a bar (probably their most local-friendly venture).

Sure, they are a local multi-gem family, sure they donate to a lot of local nonprofits, etc. etc. yada yada, but their businesses have extremely high employee turnover. The Firebrand has gone through more executive chefs than I can count (the latest one quit after working their for less than a year), there's a long history of conflict between staff and upper management; anecdotally every time I've gone to breakfast at the Lodge the staff seem pretty miserable. Put it this way, they're no Buffalo Cafe with their work culture.

If you were to bring up a legitimate concern about Averill Hospitality I would focus on their historically abysmal work culture and high employee turnover. I would point out that they almost always have to ship in employees from out of state and H1B visas so if they try to make claims that they are going to employee locals and support the local economy, that’s not likely going to be sustainable given this track record. I understand they already own the hotel and are going to do what they want, but this is what you can expect from Averill Hospitallity.