What’s Good? This month, it’s investing in the jewel of appalachia!

This month's Opportunity Appalachia project reminds us that investment isn't always about creating something entirely new. Sometimes it's about connecting the pieces that are already there.

We're heading to Harlan, Kentucky, where the former Lewallen Hotel - once known as the "jewel of Appalachia" - is being restored as the Harlan Hotel. Built in 1922 during the county's coal boom, the five-story landmark sat at the center of downtown life. Soon, it will do so again.

The restored Harlan Hotel will feature 28 guest rooms, a lobby bar, meeting and arts space, and a sundries counter. Step outside the front door and you'll find Moonbow Tipple coffee shop and bookstore across the street. Around the corner sits Harlan County Beer Company with its outdoor stage and beer garden. Nearby are Portal Pizzeria, local boutiques, the Harlan History Museum, the Higher Ground multi-arts center, and the convention center. Within a short drive are Black Mountain, Kingdom Come State Park, Portal 31, Benham's Coal Museum, and a growing outdoor recreation economy. The Harlan Hotel is an investment in more than just lodging, it’s an investment in community life.

A recent feasibility study found that downtown Harlan needs additional lodging capacity “...due to the number of outdoor adventurers, history buffs, downtown festival goers, and cultural tourists that visit Harlan” (Opportunity Appalachia, 2025). Today, visitors often have to stay outside of downtown. That means fewer dollars spent walking Main Street, lingering after an event, or discovering a local business they hadn't planned to visit.

The hotel helps solve that problem by creating a front door to the broader community.

The project is expected to create approximately 60 construction jobs and 25 permanent living-wage jobs with benefits, including opportunities for second-chance employees. More importantly, it strengthens an ecosystem that local entrepreneurs and community leaders have spent years building.

The financing is a patchwork quilt of historic tax credits, owner investment, foundation support, a community crowdfunding campaign, and additional public and private capital are all helping move the project forward. No single source carries the whole weight. Instead, each piece helps make the others possible.

Community revitalization rarely happens because of one transformational project. It happens because people invest in the relationships between projects. Housing supports employers. Arts support tourism. Tourism supports local businesses. Local businesses create the sense of place that holds and attracts the next generation of residents and entrepreneurs.

The Harlan Hotel demonstrates that investing in a community can mean investing in the connections that hold it together.

Members of AFN's network, like Appalachian Community Capital, are helping build those connections by aligning capital with local vision and local leadership. In Harlan, restoring one historic building is also an investment in a downtown, a tourism economy, and a community that has been laying the groundwork for its own future for years.