From burgers to banking to buildings: Tom Clark, the intrepid entrepreneur

— Ray Kroc was a piano player, paper-cup salesman, and a multi-mixer salesman. In 1954, he received an unusually large order for eight multi-mixers from a restaurant in San Bernardino, Calif. run by the McDonald brothers. The business model was simple: offer a few items on the menu, such as 15-cent burgers, fries, and milkshakes, and focus on the quality. A year later, Kroc founded the McDonald’s Corp., which today is the world’s leading, global food-service retailer with more than 35,000 locations in more than 100 countries serving 70 million customers daily.

Burgers
Harold (Tom) Clark, Jr. bought into the idea back in 1978, when he called Kroc to purchase some franchises. A Utica–area resident, Clark founded Mac-Clark Restaurants, Inc. in the same year. Nearly 36 years later, he owns 17 franchises scattered across four counties surrounding Utica. “The restaurant business employs 963 people,” says the company president. “I enjoy it as much today as when I started the business, because I deal with young people who keep me young. For many [of my employees], this is their first job … Everybody goes through computer-based training, and 98 percent of my management come from the ranks. The idea that McDonald’s employees just flip hamburgers and get substandard wages is false. My average hourly pay-rate is $10 an hour, managers earn up to $50,000 plus benefits, and supervisors earn more than that.” Clark spends 90 percent of his time as a franchise operator. He says his annual revenue tops $40 million.

Banking
In 1990, the Utica native was unhappy with his investment returns. Rather than change investment advisors, Clark bought the Saranac Lake Federal Savings & Loan Association, an enterprise that had $29 million in assets. “I wanted to control my investments,” states the inveterate entrepreneur with a smile, “and recapitalized the bank as a stock corporation.” The new bank operated as a federal savings bank until 1995 when it was re-chartered as a national bank with a new name — Adirondack Bank, N.A. To position the bank for the future, he converted it to a state charter in 2003.

“When Gary Kavney joined the bank as president and CEO,” continues Clark, “assets had grown to $100 million. When Gary retired in 2013, we posted more than $500 million. By the end of the year, the number will reach $700 million. It’s been a good time for the bank to attract deposits with all of the confusion among consumers because of the flurry of bank-merger activity … From just a few branches in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, the bank now has 19 offices and more than 200 employees.” Adirondack Financial Services Corp. with its four divisions — investment-advisory services, qualified-retirement plans, employee benefits, and financial planning — is an affiliate of the bank, and Adirondack Insurance Services, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary.

Adirondack Bank generated about $25 million in total income according to its 2013 year-end, consolidated financial statement. The bank holds 1.81 percent of the 16-county Central New York region’s deposits, according to CNYBJ Research and FDIC data as of June 30, 2014, the latest available. 

Clark says he does not get involved in the day-to-day running of the bank.

Buildings
What started with burgers and banks now includes buildings. Clark set up Adron Building LLC, a real-estate company that includes the Adirondack Bank building as well as the adjoining property, which formerly housed Harza Engineering Company. The two properties contain 250,000 square feet of space on Genesee Street in downtown Utica. Adron Building LLC also holds apartments and other miscellaneous real estate.

While Clark at age 71 is still looking for more McDonald’s franchise opportunities, he has already begun addressing the question of corporate succession. His oldest son, H. T. Clark III, created an LLC and now owns and operates three of the 17 franchises. The middle son, Robert, is the executive vice president of retail banking as well as the director of marketing at Adirondack Bank and works closely with the bank’s current president and CEO, Rocco F, Arcuri, Sr. The youngest son, Christopher, is just two years out of college and working in New York City at a hedge fund.

Clark’s road to success has had its challenges. “Competition is brutal [in the franchise business],” declares the president of Mac-Clark from his office on the 15th floor of the Adirondack Bank building. “The original concept of a limited menu has changed with consumers’ tastes as they want more … [healthful] choices. It’s not just Big Macs anymore; now we offer yogurt, apple slices, and salads. To compete with Tim Hortons and Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s offers breakfast with not only hotcakes and Egg McMuffins but also sausage burritos and fruit-and-maple oatmeal. At lunch and dinner, we face competition from Wendy’s, Burger King, and Subway, to mention a few, who frankly are giving everything away. The margins in this business are really tight.”

Over the years, Clark has shared his financial success with the community. He is a $5 million donor to his alma mater, Utica College, and has been generous to area children’s causes, such as the House of the Good Shepherd, Utica Rescue Mission, Upstate Cerebral Palsy, and Camp Ronald McDonald, a day-camp facility on a 100-acre tract. 

“I saw the needs of the community in 1965 when I was only 22,” stresses Clark. “I was an executive on loan from my first employer, Marine Midland Bank, working with a nonprofit organization to help the less fortunate. I learned then how important it was to give back to the community.”

Clark is very optimistic about the future of the Mohawk Valley. “Business in the area is growing,” he opines. “We’re just beginning to see the impact of nanotechnology on the region, which I think will be huge. I’m also encouraged by how well our political leaders work together, regardless of party affiliation. There really is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Clark graduated from Utica College in 1965. Right out of school, he went to work for Marine Midland Bank. Over his nine-year tenure, the young executive progressed from training to commercial loans, credit cards, and finally industrial finance. Bankers Trust hired him in 1974 to be the area’s regional president and expand the operation into the Syracuse market. “By 1978, I decided to buy a business in the area,” affirms Clark. “While at the bank, I had financed a McDonald’s operator at the time that the first franchise opened in the area. I knew the financials of running the business, and I knew the franchise was for sale. The rest is history.” When not engrossed in the business, the septuagenarian heads for the family retreat at Big Moose Lake, which his grandfather bought in 1936. There is little time anymore for avocations with McDonald’s open 24/7 and seven grandchildren to attend to. Clark is married to New York State Supreme Court Justice Bernadette T. Clark.                      

Contact Poltenson at npoltenson@cnybj.com