CONWAY - Stephen Johnson worked at the Scottish Lion when he was 14 years
old. This past spring, he bought it.
Johnson, a 1988 graduate of Fryeburg
Academy and a Portland restaurant owner, was looking for a restaurant site in
Mount Washington Valley and came upon the Scottish Lion property while searching
the Internet. Nine months later, the deal was sealed, and on July 2 Johnson
opened Moat Mountain Smoke House and Brewing Co., at the former Scottish Lion
site.
"We've had a great showing from people I grew up with and who I knew
from here," Johnson said. "It's been great. We've steadily and progressively
gotten busier."
Dennis Helfand, former owner of Cranmore Mountain Lodge and
now an Internet consultant in California, helped make the Internet
connection.
"About two years ago, I was back in North Conway on the way to an
Amherst College reunion," Helfand said. "In the course of that visit, I had
dinner at the Scottish Lion. I knew Michael and Janet Procopio (Scottish Lion
owners) very well. They were telling me that their inn was listed but that it
was not moving. I made arrangements with them that I would market the site over
the Internet for them, and I was very confident that I would be able to sell
it."
The Procopios had a Realtor, and Helfand is not a Realtor himself. "The
arrangement was that I would handle all of the Internet marketing for the
Realtor," he said. "Any inquiries that might come in, I would immediately
forward to their Realtor to handle."
Over the course of about a year, the
Internet listing generated about 85 inquiries, which Helfand said was about 10
times the number of inquiries the Realtor was receiving from print ads. One of
the Internet inquiries was from Stephen A. Johnson.
"Hello," Johnson wrote.
"I am very interested in receiving a prospectus on the Lion. I am a restaurateur
in Portland, Maine. Looking to expand my holdings. Incidentally, this was the
property where I first cut my teeth cooking professionally during high school.
Please feel free to e-mail me."
Helfand passed Johnson's e-mail message onto
the Realtor, who then negotiated the sale.
"It's so hard to sell commercial
real estate," Helfand said. "It's a slow process. What we try to do if help
speed up that process. Our role is to get as many buyers into your sphere as we
can. At that point, it's up to you and your Realtors to create a proper sales
environment so that the person will be motivated to buy."
Johnson could have
located the Scottish Lion property through any of a number of Internet search
engines.
"We are specialists in getting properties positioned on major search
engines," Helfand said, "and we have a large collection of specialty web-site
addresses in the real estate field, particularly commercial real estate. We get
the site announced as being available through these specialty
locations."
Johnson said he turned to the Internet as an "alternative" when
negotiations on another property fell through.
"I had done the physical
work," Johnson said. "I had come into town and asked around. That's how you
usually find stuff, but I couldn't find a suitable property. Then this came
along."
Johnson said the Scottish Lion property was actually a little bigger
than what he wanted. "But it was a good location, north of the village," he
said. "Good for the locals anyway. I do want that to be the core of my
business."
Moat Mountain Smoke House opens at 11:30 a.m. each day and serves
food until 11:30 p.m. or midnight on weekdays and 12:30 a.m. on weekends. The
brewery is not yet up and running but will be by the end of September, Johnson
said.
Phone number is 356-6381.