Downtown’s new/old Gainesville Lodge is having its grand…um…reopening this coming Thursday, April 16, from 4 to 6 p.m.
They are almost all gone now.
Bambi, Florida, Casa Loma, Sands, Gator Court.
Relics of a bygone era when families motoring into town for Gator football, graduation, concerts and the like needed low cost accommodations. And they fit the bill nicely.
Alas, over the years, most of GNV’s mom & pop roadside motels caved in under pressure from decreasing business and new development.
To mostly be replaced by upscale hotels, apartment complexes, convenience stores and strip malls.
But somehow, against all odds, GNV’s ‘Sleepy Bear’ motel managed to hold out longer than most of the others.
But now downtown’s circa 1962 Gainesville TraveLodge has been restored… reborn really…as the Gainesville Lodge.
What set the old TraveLodge apart from other GNV motels was that it was not located on the outskirts of town on U.S. 441 – the city’s main north-south drag before the Interstate came through.
Indeed, you might say the old TraveLodge had the good fortune to be located in a very respectable neighborhood indeed.
Right next door to the red-brick, century-old First Baptist Church, and just across University Avenue from GNV’s lone ‘skyscraper,’ the Segal Building.
The Gainesville Lodge’s new owners are Anthony Lyons and his partner Nick Banks. Lyons is a former GNV Community Redevelopment Agency director, one-time city manager and, increasingly, a major player in downtown GNV’s renewal.
“I became interested in this property after passing it over many, many years,” Lyons said. “My passion is trying to find places that have had little investment but lots of potential.
“This project combines many things that I think are wonderful…redevelopment, historic preservation, hospitality. It’s local and it’s downtown.”
Although no longer a TraveLodge, Lyons has nonetheless taken care to preserve one or two remembrances of the sleepwalking bear that was the national motel chain’s masco since its inception, in 1939.
The rooms have all been redecorated in a sort of mid-20th century art deco kitschy style. Hey, it’s a boutique motel, OK?
Oh, and there’s the Twist (think Chubby Checker’s dance) a coffee shop/craft cocktail bar that Lyons hopes will eventually serve some sort of edibles to boot.
“We want this to be a comfortable environment,” Lyons said. “A place to have a coffee or a drink and hang out. We want to make sure it’s as much for locals as for guests.”
Apropos of nothing at all, the new/old Gainesville Lodge is having its ribbon-cutting, grand opening celebration on Thursday, April 16 from 4-6 p.m.
So stop by and hang out if you’ve a mind.
No pajamas though.
FreeGNV 