In a significant change to Oil City’s North Side, the former Days Inn, which had fallen into disrepair, was demolished in 2024.
In late 2023, the city — in partnership with the Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry and Tourism; and the Oil City Redevelopment Authority — acquired the vacant, dilapidated hotel from Oil City Hospitality LLC, run by the Shah family.
By the time ownership was transferred, the cost was about $525,000, Oil City Manager Mark Schroyer said at the time. The purchase price was $499,000. The rest of the money was for settlement and legal costs.
The building’s contents were auctioned in May.
In addition to scores of chairs of all varieties, televisions, mini-fridges and dishes, the kitchen and bar equipment also were offered for sale.
A number of mementoes of the Oil City Club, such as light fixtures, two signed paintings and the champagne fountain, also were auctioned.
In times past, most of the space on the fifth floor was reserved by the Oil City Club, with the remaining area featuring six executive suites. The private, members-only club was founded in 1944 and listed a substantial membership roll for decades.
In August, the bid for the demolition of the former Days Inn was awarded by the ORA to Bert Klapec Inc. (BKI), which submitted the low bid at $345,000.
A few days before demolition began, the hotel was put to one last use. A Pennsylvania Strike Team 1 Urban Search and Rescue exercise for firefighters from across western Pennsylvania was conducted by the Oil City Fire Department on Sept. 11. It was designed to strengthen local emergency response to large buildings.
In all, about 20 firefighters from Oil City, Franklin and Seneca, and more than 40 members of the task force from across western Pennsylvania participated; with one truck coming from Johnstown.
The firefighters spent the day in part knocking holes in the walls, and training for a scenario in which a multistory building partially collapsed and people were trapped inside.
The demolition soon followed and continued for about a month.
With the building’s demolition complete, future plans for the space have yet to be publicly defined by the city or the ORA, though the Venango County commissioners have said they want to see a reputable developer come in and build a new hotel on the site.
Some history
The hotel was built as a five-story Holiday Inn at a cost of $1.6 million and opened for business in August 1965.
It was later renamed the Arlington and became part of the America’s Best Value Inn chain. Then, in 2013, it became a Days Inn as part of the Wyndham Hotel chain.
In 2021, after activity at the hotel had ceased for a couple of years, Oil City Hospitality, a Richmond, Virginia-based company, purchased the property for $250,000 from First Western SBLC Inc., of Dallas.
The bank was the sole bidder for the 106-room hotel at a Venango County sheriff’s sale in mid-2020.
Though Oil City Hospitality’s Bhavik Shah and Days Inn General Manager Sachin Patel repeatedly told the newspaper that the hotel would reopen at some point, it remained closed and vacant, eventually falling into major disrepair and being vandalized.
The hotel was put back on the market in May 2023, and Oil City Hospitality was asking for $2.5 million for the property at that time.
After negotiations in June of that year, a tentative agreement had been reached for the city to purchase the property. The transaction was completed in November 2023.
