Motel gets new life as apartments

MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — A shuttered Twin Lakes Area motel will be reborn later this summer as an apartment complex.

The former Town and Country Motor Inn, located at 145 South Main in downtown Mountain Home, is presently being renovated into 42 apartments.

A dozen “micro-flats” — 225 square-foot apartments with water, electric and Wi-Fi internet access provided — are expected to be available on Sept. 1. Thirty “eco-flats” — which have about double the square footage of the micro-flats and will also have all utilities provided — are expected to be available in March.

The property was purchased by Mark Bertel Jr. and his wife, Kelsey, earlier this summer after the former motel spent about four years being off and on the real estate market.

“It’s good to see some activity there. That property has been there a long, long time,” Mayor Hillrey Adams said. “Sitting right there on one of the city’s main thoroughfares — all boarded up — that didn’t look good for the city.”

Mark Bertel is the owner of Mark Bertel Jr. Construction and is a co-owner in the Mountain Home-based lifestyle clothing company Borderline Clothing & Supply. Kelsey Bertel is the owner of Cove Coffee, located at 714 South Baker Street in downtown Mountain Home.

“We were just so excited about (closing on the property) because we just wanted to get in here and get it done,” Mark Bertel said. “I feel like Mountain Home is a town with momentum, and when you have it you keep rolling with it.”

The studio-style flats will be furnished with IKEA multifunctional furniture to help maximize the unit’s storage space. The micro-units are expected to rent for between $500 and $600, Mark Bertel said.

“We’re hoping to cater to seniors and college kids,” he said. “It’s a small space, but it’s going to be really nice.”

Adams said a lack of housing for college students was a frequent complaint that he had heard. Another underserved group are traveling professionals that only spend a couple days each week in the area, he told The Baxter Bulletin.

“They’re here for short amounts of time. That would be a good market to look at,” he said.

Some of the improvements required to convert the property into apartments included installing a fire-prevention sprinkler system and updating the electrical system. Rooms have also been repainted, refloored and remodeled to include kitchenettes.

Work on the dozen microflats, located on the southeast corner of property, are expected to continue about another three weeks. A team of 11 volunteers and subcontractors are helping the Bertels rehab the former motel, which was built in 1961.

“The bones of this place are pretty good. It’s just been abused,” Mark Bertel said.

Reopening the property as a motel was considered at one point, but that idea was dropped, he said.

“I’d rather have good tenants that are involved in the community than people who are from out-of-town and will abuse the property because they are just staying the one night,” Mark Bertel said.

A reopened motel would not be able to compete with the amenities offered by modern hotels, he added.

“People in this day and age, I think, are going to stay at the Holiday Inn. I mean, I would,” Mark Bertel said. “Motels are cool — they’re old America — but the convenience of them is not as nice as the hotels we have (today).”

The former motel’s pool will be filled in and replaced by a community garden, and its courtyard will be decorated with several large murals, Mark Bertel said. One mural — which bears the message “Love the Ozarks” in orange lettering — already adorns the side of the micro-flats.