Come on Inn

An extensive renovation three years in the making is now complete and Keval Sheth, owner of The Inn at Tree City, is welcoming the community to come check out the fruits of his team's labor. The Tree City Grand Opening is set for Friday at 809 Sparta St. in McMinnville. The McMinnville-Warren County Chamber of Commerce will hold a ribbon cutting at 2:30 p.m. and live music will begin at 4 p.m. and last until 9 p.m. The family-friendly event is free and open to all.

For Keval, the property has been a major part of his life, and he is proud to welcome the community to check out the complete overhaul it has undergone. Rooms have been refreshed with Warren County theming, and a high-end cocktail bar (The Well at Tree City) and a coffee shop (The Cafe at Tree City) have been added.

"We moved from Ohio, and my parents bought the property in 1998," Keval said. "At that point it was the Holiday Inn Express. When the contract with Holiday Inn Express was up in 2003, it became the Best Western Tree City Inn. It stayed under that name until last year when we converted to The Inn at Tree City. We're still under the Best Western flag for reward points and reservations, but we get to run as an independent boutique hotel for McMinnville."

Keval considers the hotel as a sort of sibling that grew up along with him. He is proud to have included his family in the remodel as he assumed control and began to take The Inn into a new era.

"The remodel ended up being literally a family affair," Keval said. "My parents were getting ready to retire, and I decided to come in and take it over instead of selling the property. I saw there was nothing that made the property here feel McMinnville. As we are working on more tourism and things of that nature, I really wanted to help bridge that gap. So, we created rooms dedicated to some of the big landmarks for McMinnville. My sister, who lived in McMinnville her entire childhood and graduated from WCHS but no longer lives here, has her own marketing agency in Indianapolis. She's the one who did all our rebranding."

Keval's ambitious goals required an investment in both money and time. Work began in 2022 with the first priority being the rooms themselves. While the comfort of guests is always paramount for any hotel, Keval also wanted to create community gathering places which could serve as hangouts for locals who aren't staying at The Inn.

"We completed the remodeling of the hotel rooms first," Keval said. "Then we moved to the public spaces. They were finished about six months ago. The Well has been open for a little over a year and The Cafe has been open about eight months. What we want the community to know is even though we're a hotel, The Well and The Cafe is open to the general public. The Cafe is open 5 a.m.-7 p.m. seven days a week. It's a great place if you just want to hang out or need a place to work. We have free Wi-Fi and nobody is going to kick you out."

The final piece of the puzzle in The Inn's facelift is the addition of an elevator, a project which is finally close enough to completion that Keval is ready to celebrate with the public.

"Anyone who has ever worked on an elevator will tell you they'll probably never build anything with an elevator again," Keval said. "That's taken 10 months longer than I anticipated. As an outdoor property, we had to deal with the weather. Now that we're nearing the finish line for that and things aren't as messy, this is finally the perfect time for our re-grand opening. We're going to open the guest rooms so everyone can see the four themes our rooms have – Cumberland Caverns, hiking, Rock Island and Fall Creek Falls and yoga."

Friday's grand opening will feature a 15% off sale on the entire menu at The Cafe, which will be open until 9 p.m. for the event. Live music will be provided by 3 Star Soul, Tucker Wilson, Matt and the Watt Gives, and Beau Tatum.

"We will block off part of the parking lot, and we will have a full stage with sound and lighting," Keval said. "People can bring lawn chairs and sit and chill. They can listen to the music and walk into The Cafe and grab something. We will be selling non-alcoholic drinks and beer outside and The Well will be serving cocktails.

"More than anything, we want to showcase what we've done with the property. We're extremely excited about it. For a property originally built in the 1960s, we're happy to have been able to turn it into something specifically made for McMinnville. We have a motel-style property but when people come into our guest rooms, people say it's like we've brought retro and modern together in a cohesive way for McMinnville. That's exactly what I wanted to do. I'm glad we were able to do it."

Until next time, the Beat goes on

Swing by Friday and check out Keval and his crew at the Tree City Grand Opening and let them know you read about it in Biz Beat. Thanks for reading and thanks to the folks at Ben Lomand Connect for sponsoring the column. Check out the business listings for September, shown below.