Testimonials
When Nimesh Shah looked at building a hotel on the campus of Rock Lititz, he knew he needed help taking his music-themed hotel to the next level.
Before taking on Hotel Rock Lititz, Nimesh Shah and the team at As One Management managed five hotels. Rock Lititz would be the second they’d build from the ground up and the sixth in their portfolio.
But Nimesh knew this one would be different and might come with more risk.
The hotel would be set on the campus of Rock Lititz, a 96-acre site located in rural Lancaster County designed to meet the needs of the live event industry, particularly large rock concerts. How could a massive independent hotel in the middle of Lititz work? It wouldn’t be in a major city and wouldn’t have a big hotel chain name behind it.
When Nimesh brought Kent Ketterman, Senior Vice President and Director of Commercial Real Estate Lending at PeoplesBank, out to the site, there was one giant building there with no windows and just two cars in the parking lot.
Nimesh showed Kent his vision: a truly unique music-themed experience, from the front door to the hallway wallpaper.
“Of all the folks we talked to,” Nimesh says, “PeoplesBank was the only one who took the time to understand what we were trying to do. Realizing and believing in the vision is what makes this a true partnership.”
A Rocky Start
Hotel Rock Lititz opened in November 2018. From the hotel entrance, every detail ties back to rich music roots. An arc of speakers lining the wall behind the reception desk once traveled on-tour with artists such as U2 and the Grateful Dead. Steel from the set of Beyonce’s The Formation World Tour was repurposed into patio benches. A box of backstage passes was digitally scanned to create accent wallpaper for each floor. Every bathroom door is made from old road cases.
While big-name artists on tour often stay at the hotel, their real market is the teams that travel with the artists, putting the shows together.
But only 15 months after the hotel opened, the pandemic hit. Hotels often take a couple of years to regain their footing, and Hotel Rock Lititz was no exception.
“While we were doing extremely well,” Nimesh says, “the pandemic still hit hard, and we were still stabilizing.”
In the spring of 2020, the hotel went from running 100 miles per hour to being completely empty. Nimesh knew he had to call PeoplesBank and tell them Hotel Rock Lititz had to close.
It was a moment, Nimesh says, that set PeoplesBank apart from every other bank he had worked with.
PeoplesBank went above and beyond the government requirements to make sure that the hotel would be in strong standing when it was able to open back up.
“The ramifications were massive,” Nimesh says. “Because they gave us breathing room, I was able to go to my employees and say, I can pay 60 percent of your salary. I was able to go to my restaurant operator and say we’re going to defer your rent for a year because someone is helping us. We were able to pass it on because they were helping us. They could keep their income streams because of what PeoplesBank did.”
Becoming the American Dream
When Nimesh moved to the United States from India at age 13, he never imagined he’d be managing a rock-themed hotel. He grew up in a tiny two-bedroom apartment in St. Louis and spent his weekends working at his dad’s Dunkin’ Donuts franchise.
Moving up in the world of hospitality and taking on hotel management was never about making a lot of money for him.
“You end up with a bigger family,” Nimesh says. “I see it as my job to make the hotel successful because through that, I can make the people who work day in and day out successful.”
Nimesh is excited for what the future holds, including a possible Rock Lititz 2.0.
“I love this country,” he says, “because if you’re willing to work hard, you can literally achieve whatever you want.”
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