The head of a major national real estate company based in Williamstown, Massachusetts, has given a rare interview to WAMC to talk about his life and work.
For almost four decades, the national headquarters of Inland Management has sat quietly in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
“We’re probably one of the largest companies in Berkshire County. Our revenues are approaching $200 million a year," said Harry Patten.
Patten, 83, is the owner, chairman and founder of National Land Partners – which touts billions of dollars of real estate sales.
“My dad was born in 1881," he told WAMC. "That puts my grandfather almost back to the time of Lincoln. That’s kind of crazy, isn’t it? But anyway. My dad was a trader. He grew up in North Dakota, and moved to Massachusetts probably in the late 1800’s and moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, and started buying and selling and trading real estate and whatever. I guess that’s how I got it in my blood.”
Land wasn’t the first commodity Patten tried his hand at.
“I was a vacuum cleaner salesman in college, and after college I staid selling vacuum cleaners for a few years and became a distributor for them and they lived in Rhode Island," said Patten. "And I really got kind of sick of it. So I answered an ad in the Wall Street Journal and I met a man who was in the land development business in Norfolk, Virginia. I flew down and met him, he gave me $300 a week salary, which I thought was absolutely phenomenal in 1962, and I went to work and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Inland Management – which employs 35 – does all of the marketing, sales, accounting, and legal work required to support the work of National Land Partners, which has over a hundred employees nationwide.
“We buy great big pieces of land and make little pieces of land out of them to satisfy a homebuilding market," explained Patten. "Right now, there’s a tremendous shortage of lots. Builders can’t get lots. Back in 2006, 2007, money became so tight that builders couldn’t carry a lot of land on their balance sheet, so they cleaned it, drained it off, and now today they have kind of a hard time replacing it. So a lot of builders today do not have lots to build on.”
Though Patten loves the Berkshires, he describes doing business in the Bay State as “difficult.” Much of the land he deals in – thousands and thousands of acres – is in states like Colorado, Wyoming, the Carolinas, and Texas.
“We fly the Texas flag outside of our building. No one’s ever asked why," laughed Patten. "The reason I guess is because we do a lot of business in Texas. Texas has become one of our prime spots. And it doesn’t make really a lot of sense why we’d be here in Massachusetts, but we’re here in Massachusetts because we’ve been here a long time.”
Patten brought his business to Williamstown almost 35 years ago after the realization that his company had outgrown its then headquarters.
“I moved to Stamford, Vermont, and our company was doing very, very well," he said. "And in 1985 we went public, and became a public company in the New York Stock Exchange in a farmhouse in Stamford, Vermont. And we bought all the houses around and they all became offices, and one morning I woke up and said, I’ve got to get out of here! Everybody, the people working in my house – we had offices in my house, and here we are, a New York Stock Exchange company.”
He also invested in Paradise Farm when he came to Williamstown, building a home and developing a produce business on the almost 80-acre plot of land located by the Five Corners.
“And we started growing a little garden, and we grow vegetables," said Patten. "Today we sell about half a million dollars’ worth of produce out of this farm.”
Another of Patten’s local holdings is the Turbo Prop East aircraft supply and repair business at the North Adams airport, which employs a staff of 17.
“Well, I’ve always had an airplane," he told WAMC. "And I had an airplane, it was parked over at North Adams Airport. And the people that owned Turbo Prop at the time wouldn’t let me put my airplane inside. So they filed bankruptcy, and I bought the company, and put my airplane inside. And since then, it’s been a great little business.”
Alongside all of Patten’s success in business is his philanthropic work.
“Many years ago, I had an accident and I went to Mass General. They took me in and they were very, very busy, and I spent most the first day there waiting in the emergency room," he said. "And I swore I didn’t ever want to be outside waiting in a cot in the emergency room again, and I’d see what I could do to help them.”
His donations paid for a floor of the hospital’s cancer ward and established a chair in its development office in honor of one of his favorite doctors.
Patten’s support also benefits Junior Achievement of South Florida – which teaches life skills like math and financial literacy to 50,000 students a year – and Southeastern Guide Dogs, which trains dogs to work with the blind and veterans. At the University of New Hampshire, Patten contributes to the Entrepreneurship Center, which allows students to develop innovative business ideas.
“It is not run by faculty, it’s run by outside entrepreneurs who want to see kids become engaged,” said Patten.
His work has garnered him recognition among a rarified group. In 2011, Patten was inducted into the exclusive Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans alongside figures like Roger Ailes, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Michael Bloomberg.
One of the most personal ways Patten has attempted to communicate to the world what he’s learned in life is through a book he wrote with his daughter Andrea: “What Kids Need To Succeed.”
“The secret of what kids need to success is pretty simple: kids need discipline, they need a work ethic, they need to tell the truth, they need to do some of the basic things which most of us were taught,” said the businessman.
While Patten has no intent to retire, a succession plan is currently being developed.
When asked what he’s most proud of, Patten doesn’t hesitate: his reputation.
“I don’t think there’s any people out there who know me who are detractors," Patten told WAMC. "I think we do a great job, we have a great company, and we’ve been around a long time.”
