Grading Work Begins on New Cookeville Holiday Inn

Preliminary work has begun on Cookeville’s new Holiday Inn hotel along South Willow Avenue.

Hotel Co-owner Chris Shah said he expects the project to be completed by the end of this year.

“We just started grading so by the end of this March, we’re going to start our work,” Shah said. “This [building] will be the first of its kind in Cookeville. It’s going to be concrete walls. The walls are coming from Atlanta through a Canadian company. The whole building will be a concrete structure. It will go very fast.”

Shah said some of the features associated with the new hotel will help bring a big-city feel to the area.

“Cookeville is lacking with the nice hotels with full service,” Shah said. “We don’t have any rooftop bars, like if you go the big cities like Nashville. People are always bragging ‘we have rooftop bars.’ So I want to do it in Cookeville with a nice restaurant and nice rooftop bar. This is a prime location in Cookeville and it’s growing. We need a more upscale hotel here in Cookeville, so that’s what we’re doing.”

The project was originally scheduled to be completed this summer, but recent weather and cold temperatures delayed the project slightly. Shah said despite the delay, the hotel will be a valuable asset to Cookeville and South Willow Avenue.

“We don’t have an exact [opening] date right now, but definitely by the end of 2019 we will open it,” Shah said. “We have a nice facility in the hotel. We’ll have a 2,500 square-foot meeting room. Also, outside the meeting room is a 2,000 square-foot gathering area too. Combined, it’s about a 4,500 square-foot meeting room and gathering area over there.”

The hotel is being constructed just off Interstate 40 Exit 286 on the site of the old Race Track gas station next to Waffle House.