The sale of Gainesboro’s Old Shamrock Motel is expected to get the green light by the weekend, opening the door for the historic building to be restored as a boutique hotel.
Ridgefield Properties Managing Partner Marc Stengel said getting an official survey of the property is the final step before closing. Stengel said he expects his attorney to receive the survey on Thursday, and he will get with the three current property owners to set a date to close. He said he plans to gut the building’s interior and start from scratch.
“The intention is to restore the hotel as best we can along historic guidelines so that it remains an attractive piece of the architectural fabric of Gainesboro town square,” Stengel said.
Stengel said he wants to create a “tourism corridor” that stretches from Granville to Rugby, with the hotel as a focal point. He said it feels like a pipe dream with the extensive work ahead, but he hopes to open the hotel in 2026 on the centennial anniversary of its construction.
“The building, from a layman’s point of view, is basically a mess,” Stengel said. “There’s really no eloquent way to say it. It’s been neglected. It’s a sound building. The roof is sound. There are no utilities to the building except for what serves the commercial office spaces and the residences.”
He said there are two residential tenants and four office spaces, all rented monthly. He said he wants to ensure those tenants that no one will be displaced without ample notice. An architect will be hired to handle further discovery and Stengel said he already has an engineer studying the structure to begin a design.
“I would like to help bring tourism back to the town square,” Stengel said. “There’s a lot of tourism growing in the Upper Cumberland region generally.”
He said he hopes to create a comfortable place to stay for tourists visiting the region’s state parks and other growing downtown attractions. He said when finished, the hotel will be a big boost for the economy in Gainesboro and the Upper Cumberland as a whole.
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