In the basement of The Stone House Club in Little Compton, a speakeasy was in use during Prohibition.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

PROVIDENCE — Zachary Miller and Craig Pishotti met about six years ago, when they were both bidding for the same house in Little Compton.

Miller got the house. But the rivalry was a friendly one, even though Pishotti “made me spend a lot more money than I planned,” Miller recalled with a smile. Several months later, Pishotti bought the house next door to Miller and his wife.

In addition to a shared taste in real estate, Miller and Pishotti found they had similar vocational interests.

Pishotti’s career in managing and marketing luxury hotels had taken him to Newport, where he worked for The Hotel Viking and the Chanler at Cliff Walk. Miller, who has a degree in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design, had expertise in building design and construction. The neighbors became friends, and eventually, business partners.

Almost as soon as they formed Goosewing Hotels & Resorts, their development and management company, three years ago, they landed their first project, the Weekapaug Inn in Westerly.

The oceanfront summer resort has been owned by the Buffum family for four generations. The first Weekapaug Inn was built in 1899 but was destroyed by the Hurricane of 1938. The inn was rebuilt on safer ground and reopened in 1939. Little has changed over the years; the 67-room inn has been updated, but there has never been a major renovation. The guest rooms have never had televisions, telephones, air conditioning or central heating.

The owners decided to renovate and chose Goosewing to lead and manage the process. The company will also be responsible for operating the inn when it reopens as a year-round resort.

After three years of planning and seeking necessary permits and approvals, the actual construction work at Weekapaug is set to start in January.

Recently, Miller and Pishotti have taken on a new venture, purchasing another historic seaside property, the Stone House Club in Little Compton, for $5.4 million.

With both projects, Pishotti and Miller are combining “green” building techniques with plans to meet guidelines for renovation that will make both hotels eligible for historic tax credits. They did not disclose how much the projects are expected to cost.

Miller said the Weekapaug Inn and the Stone House Club may become the first hotels in Rhode Island to be Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design certified. LEED status is conferred by The U.S. Green Building Council, the leader in promoting energy-efficient construction.

To date there are no public LEED-registered or certified buildings in Rhode Island, but there are more than 40 in Massachusetts, including public high schools, libraries, hospitals and private institutions, as well as commercial buildings.

Miller and Pishotti say they plan to introduce geothermal heating and cooling systems at both of their historic inn projects. Geothermal systems capture the heat energy that is below the earth’s surface, move it from its underground source and circulate it through a building. Miller explained that electricity is used to circulate heated or cooled air, but unlike traditional heating systems, no fossil fuels are burned onsite.

Miller said geothermal systems cost more upfront, but provide savings in the long term, and as energy costs rise, the long term gets shorter.

At Weekapaug, geothermal heating and cooling will be provided by wells that use the stable temperature deep underground.

Miller said the energy savings “payback” is expected to take seven years, but if fuel costs continue to escalate, the payback time could be as little as three to five years.

Other environmental features planned for the Weekapaug Inn include a vegetated “green roof” in one section to offset the heat-loss of a flat roof, water-efficient landscaping, a commitment to a long-term contract to purchase “green power,” which is generated by wind, solar and other renewable resources, and the use of building materials that support sustainable development.

Miller said that efforts to communicate their plans to the community, and their commitment to green building, historic renovation and retaining the character of the Weekapaug Inn, have helped win needed support for such an involved project.

Pishotti said that there will be changes at the inn to make it attractive to business guests, but the aim is to keep the technology “unobtrusive,” so that guests will still experience the feeling of being in a relaxed, beautiful, natural setting. Most of the inn’s traditions, including its programs for children, will be retained, he said.

“We’re not trying to change, just to evolve,” said owner Jim Buffum. He said he hopes to see the Weekapaug Inn “graduate from a seasonal resort to a more sophisticated operation.”

Pishotti said room service will be introduced, and phones will be placed in rooms so guests can order it, but there will still be no televisions in rooms. Wireless technology will allow guests who want access to the outside world to have it.

The Stone House Club, a granite building on 3 acres on Sakonnet Point Road in Little Compton, was built in 1854 as a private residence by David Sisson, whose son, Col. Henry Tillinghast Sisson, was a Civil War hero who also served as lieutenant governor of Rhode Island. Miller said there is evidence of a renovation in the 1870s and the introduction of East Lake-style elements.

After Sisson died, the building went into foreclosure, and was later operated as a boarding house.

During Prohibition, the basement of the main building was a speakeasy, until it was flooded in the 1938 hurricane. Miller and Pishotti said the low-ceilinged basement dining room with its big stone fireplace will reopen after the club is restored.

Miller and Pishotti said they had an agreement to buy the Stone House Club 10 days after it went on the market. Former owner Tod Moore said he was surprised and pleased that the Stone House and its spacious barn would continue to operate as a restaurant and hotel. He had assumed that it would be purchased by someone who would use it as a private residence – “someone with more money than brains,” as he put it. It took months to complete the complicated transfer, but real estate agent Judy Chace, of Residential Properties, Ltd., said it was one of the most pleasant transactions of her career.

The Stone House Club, which has 13 guest rooms, is a much smaller project than Weekapaug, but Miller and Pishotti’s approach to the renovation is similar — to retain all the elements that guests have always liked about the club, introducing modern amenities while retaining historic integrity and authenticity.

Miller said that as the only hotel in Little Compton, and one of the few restaurants, the Stone House plays an important role in the community.

Tod and Virginia Moore bought the Stone House Club in 1975, as part of a sweeping lifestyle change for the couple and their four children. Moore had been working as a television executive in New York, and he was looking for an occupation with more “socially redeeming grace.” After they moved to Little Compton, the Moores both went back to graduate school and became holistic counselors as well as hoteliers.

Managing the Stone House “was a lot of hard work, and basically no income to speak of,” he said.

In recent years, the Moores’ daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and Peter Tirpaeck, have been running the Stone House. Moore said that the decision to sell the hotel, like the decision to buy it, was a family affair.

“Craig and Zach are taking on a real challenge,” he said. “We’ll be rooting for them.”

Goosewing’s next project may bring Miller and Pishotti into a more urban environment. Miller said that the city of Providence lacks an “artistic, historic … eclectic hotel,” even though “it’s the perfect market for it.”

“We don’t stay idle for long,” he said.

cdunn@projo.com