Southern Queen Hotel has been sold to be redeveloped

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The property known as the Southern Queen along with two houses near the hotel have finally been transferred from the city’s possession to a local real estate agent who redeveloped Bellevue Heights years ago.

“Desmond Bell’s Bell Vue property proposal was the best option because it included not just bringing the hotel back to life as the Southern Queen, but also a Shake Rag’s Southern Queen kind of gallery in it’s main floor parlor space,” Downtown Development Coordinator for the City of Bowling Green, Telia Butler says.

It’s been a long time coming, but a very special piece of Bowling Green history will see guests once again.

Now under new ownership, the man in charge of rehabilitation said it’s a big job.

“It means a lot. It’s a lot of responsibility, too, at the same time, because you want to uphold the legacy that the Moses Covington family started and to just put it in a position that they could go on for another 100 years. So let my children understand what I’m doing and putting them in a position to carry on it,” Desmond Bell of Bell Vue Properties says.

Back in the summer, the city put up an RFP for the property and after arranging for Bell to acquire it for free, the hope is that it makes a big splash in town.

“That’s just going to be an amazing thing for the Shake Rag neighborhood to see it come back to life, but also to introduce it to all kinds of New Orleans aces that maybe didn’t even realize it was there,” Butler says.

Bell said this is the opportunity of a lifetime and he’s excited to get to work.

“I’m very appreciative of things like this, like what the Moses family did in 1906, like, you know, they were thinking ahead. And this it means the world to me to try to revive it and keep it going. Because just knowing all the work it took me to do another project, I know 100 years ago it was probably even harder. So I just have a lot of respect for the family and and African-Americans that were ahead of their time trying to get get away from higher woods and create their own lane,” he says.

The hotel will consist of five suites with kitchenettes. Downstairs, there will be a lobby area, as well as an artifacts display to tell the story of the Southern Queen Hotel back in its hay day.