40 Influential Leaders - Steve Duprey

Steve Duprey
Owner of The Duprey Companies

New Hampshire development and hospitality guru Steve Duprey is known statewide for his real estate development projects and for his support of the nonprofit community.

Duprey’s hospitality and development empire, the Duprey Companies, began with an elderly housing project in the early 1980s and today includes four hotels, the Grappone Conference Center, Foxfire Property Management and Facilitech Facilities Services.

Duprey’s civic engagement began in 1972 at age 19 when he won a seat in the state legislature while still in college. After graduating from Cornell Law School, he worked for Solloway and Hollis where he practiced land use law and permit financing for real
estate transactions.

When Duprey learned a few years ago that the League of NH Craftsmen was considering moving from Concord, he offered to rehouse it in his new SMILE! building on Main Street. Duprey was integral to the redevelopment of Concord’s Main Street, chairing the committee that held more than 50 public hearings on the Main Street redevelopment project and securing funding. He breathed new life into the former Eagle Hotel and redeveloped the former Lincoln Financial buildings in Concord. Duprey chairs the Pease Development Authority and serves on the boards of the Currier Museum of Art, the NH Business Finance Authority and NH Civics.

Duprey attributes his success to his mentors and his employees. “I don’t even know how to use a skill saw very well, but I know the permitting and the finance side of real estate and we’ve had great success hiring good people over the years,” he says.

Duprey also ties his success to the guidance and lessons learned early on from mentors who include former NH Senate President David Nixon, Attorney Kimon Zachos and the late Sen. John McCain.

Duprey says one of the big challenges his company has faced over the past few years has been “adjusting to the new economy,” including finding workers in the hospitality industry. Duprey praises the guest worker program that allowed the company to hire 14 foreign workers last year. “We couldn’t have run our hotels without them,” he says, adding that on the development side, a combination of high construction prices and supply chain logistics have posed challenges. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in a 40-plus year career.”