Motel renovation in Bentonville will cater to mountain bikers
Two of Northwest Arkansas’ newest residents are planning one of the region’s latest hospitality assets to bolster the mountain biking tourism economy.
Jeremy and Tiffany Rose of Bella Vista are investing more than $1 million in an old motel in Bentonville — the self-proclaimed “Mountain Biking Capital of the World” — and transform the property into The Bike Inn.
The 1.07-acre property in Bentonville, formerly known as The Pines Motel, is at 3400 S. Walton Blvd., near the Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard intersection. It’s undergoing a renovation with a targeted July opening. The 2,834-square-foot building will have 10 units, two cottages, a coin-operated laundry and an outdoor pavilion and barbecue area.
“It will be a sharp-looking place,” Jeremy Rose said. “It’s a place to visit after a ride and talk to other people about the trails where they rode. We want to be a destination for the cycling community.”
Both originally from the Midwest, the Roses moved to Northwest Arkansas from Oregon in January. They’d visited the area in recent years for mountain bike competitions.
“We were just blown away by the culture here, the trails,” said Jeremy Rose, a former U.S. Marine who does marketing work for GenesisCare Oncology in Rogers. “In Oregon, we lived in two very outdoor-centric places in Bend and Hood River, and we can see the general direction this area was going and came up with this business idea.”
According to property records, the Roses paid $900,000 for the property in May. Brothers Jeff and Randy Roth were the previous owners. They paid $475,000 for the motel in 2017 as an investment.
“We pitched them our idea, and they liked it,” Jeremy Rose said. “Other buyers who came to them wanted to tear [the motel] down. We wanted to keep the nostalgia and redo it, and they liked that idea.”
The new owners are paying cash for the renovations and will owner-finance with the Roth brothers for one year. After that, Jeremy Rose said he intends to finance the project through Signature Bank of Arkansas.