It’s been a topsy-turvy half-decade for the historic Treadway Inn building at 625 Quentin Road, Lebanon, which has seen four flag changes in about as many years.
As of this month, the hotel is now operating as Inn at Lebanon.
New operator Dip Patel says he wants to bring stability back to the property and rebuild the trust of locals and tourists alike in the hotel which began life as the Treadway Inn, an iconic building of Lebanon’s prosperous mid-century.
It was a Days Inn when LebTown began publishing in 2018.
LebTown covered the first flag change in 2019 when the hotel became a Rodeway Inn/Clarion Hotel, and then a second flag change in 2021 when it became Hammock Hotel Lebanon Hershey. In 2022, a third flag change reverted the hotel back to Days Inn, bought in a sheriff’s sale that summer for just under $9,000 (not withstanding the $4 million mortgage attached to the property).
Mostly recently, the property was purchased for $3.6 million by Krishna Lakshmi Lebanon LLC, operated by LLC partner Patel, an India native and Lancaster resident who has spent more than eight years working in U.S. hotel operations – an industry he says he was “reborn” into. Today he operates four other hotels: an Econo Lodge in Lancaster, a Red Roof Inn in York, the Ramada by Wyndham Harrisburg/Hershey Area near Linglestown, and the Inn at York, which was formerly an Econo Lodge.
The Inn at York is nearest to his vision for the new Inn at Lebanon. Patel described a set of plans for the Inn at York that he hopes to repeat in Lebanon – refreshing the banquet hall and adding a restaurant.
“I want to make local my own brand,” said Patel. “I want to treat the hotel very well.”
Patel said that the property nearly died under previous owners, and that he did not think the property had been treated very well.
Patel, two weeks into his project, said that everyone he’s met locally so far has had a connection to the property.
The opening of the Treadway Inn in 1961 was a huge event in its day. In its early years, the building housed a number of Lebanon civic organizations, including the Lebanon County Chamber of Commerce, the Lebanon Valley Tourist Bureau, and the Center of Lebanon Association.
“The people of the town have a good connection with this property, but they lost hope and trust with the property,” Patel said.
Over this summer, within the next two months, he wants to reopen the pool. Patel said the pool area used to be nice looking and he wasn’t sure why it was closed.
Patel said he entered the property in a slow season and he’s waiting for the right time to upgrade the rest of the property. He wants to target a more affordable price point than other hotels in town, he said, noting that he hopes to be at a price point half that of the Fairfield Inn & Suites or Hampton Inn elsewhere in town. He plans to use the tower building for short-term stays and the buildings towards the back of the property as longer-term rentals, mentioning construction workers and families moving into the area as possible customers.
Patel said he hopes to find someone to lease the restaurant space and also open the bar/lounge back up, so that it could also help cater events in the banquet hall.
Negotiations on the property began in September, he said, with some reluctance by lenders to back the project due to the building’s recent reputation. But, Patel said, ultimately his bank decided to put its trust in him and not the building, and he says he convinced the bank that they were gong to make the changes needed to get trust back again.
The hotel is now online at InnAtLebanon.com and Patel is bringing the hotel back to booking sites such as Booking.com, Expedia, and Google.
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