Fathom Companies

Fathom Companies develops and operates hotels in Maine and New England, working out of 80 Exchange Street in Portland’s Old Port. The firm’s calling card is adaptive reuse of downtown Portland buildings that had run out of their original use. It developed and operates The Press Hotel in the former Portland Press Herald building, an award-winning conversion that anchored the block. Fathom is now converting the 1910 Fidelity Trust Building at 465 Congress Street, the first skyscraper built in Maine and the work of architect G. Henri Desmond, into an independent upscale hotel of roughly 92 to 99 rooms with a full-service restaurant and a bar in the original vault level. The company bought the vacant nine-story office building for more than $9 million and is developing it with SwingPoint Development, targeting a 2027 opening. Fathom also carries hotel management and consulting alongside its development work.

Three business lines, published as equals rather than as a developer with a side operation: hotel management, real estate development and consulting. The distinction matters when assessing a project like the Fidelity Trust conversion, because the same firm that carries the development risk will also be running the building afterward.

The corporate team is roughly eleven people and the roles indicate where the work sits. Jim Brady is founder and president. Dennis Ruppel is chairman and a director, with Chris Ruppel as vice president and director. Marieke Thormann is vice president of development and Shelby Burgau a development executive. Brandon Hussey is vice president of hospitality management, with Alan Walsh as director of property management and Katie Strycharz as senior revenue manager. Jon Benoit is vice president of finance and Kevin Walker directs human resources. A senior revenue manager on an eleven-person roster is a hotel operator’s hire, not a developer’s.

The firm frames its work through three stated perspectives it calls its lens. Innovation is about creating spaces the company describes as thought-provoking rather than conventional. Sustainability is defined in terms of long-term viability for the team, stakeholders and surrounding community rather than as an environmental certification target. Engagement is about intentional design applied to ordinary spaces.

Brady’s own framing of the approach is that the commitment to development and hospitality management centres on innovative design and thoughtful programming, and on crafting spaces that tell a specific story. The stated values are creativity, collaboration and integrity, with collaboration described as running both internally across the business and outward to vendors, community members and stakeholders.

The office is at 80 Exchange Street, Suite 400, in Portland’s Old Port, reachable at 207-808-8787 and info@fathomcompanies.com. The company publishes separate hotel and development portfolios along with a media page.