“We’re trying not to brand it but let each individual hotel keep its local feel,” said Andrew Milne, owner of several Tri-Lakes hotels.

Milne said he doesn’t technically own the Devlin. Formerly Art Devlin’s Olympic Motor Inn, the hotel is now run by BNB-Buddy, a local hotel management company. The company owns and operates Sara Placid Inn & Suites and The Ashley in Saranac Lake, the latter named for Andrew’s wife Ashley, who owns BNB-Buddy.

Art Devlin, Lake Placid’s current mayor, sold the hotel for $4.4 million in 2022. He bought the hotel from his father — Art Devlin — in 1992 after growing up there as his father had. After decades of being on call 24/7, Devlin said he was ready to pass it on.

“It was just time to get out,” he said.

BNB-Buddy’s goal for The Devlin is to modernize it, but not to redo it. Mostly, Milne said, changes will be limited to room renovations and a “nice, new sign.”

Changing the name of the hotel was due to several factors, but dropping the “motor-inn” part was intentional, Milne said. Rather than the older motor-inn style, Milne said it will have a more “boutique” feel.

The other part of the name, the “Olympic,” can’t be used anymore. The hotel’s first name was “Devlin’s Motel” when it opened in 1953. Back then, the mayor’s father was considered an “amateur” athlete, not yet allowed to monetize the Olympic name, despite competing as a ski jumper in the 1952 Olympic Winter Games in Oslo, Norway. Devlin went on to compete in the same event during the 1956 Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. He changed the name to Art Devlin’s Olympic Motor Inn after retiring from competition in 1960.

Now, “Olympic” is trademarked. The motor-inn was grandfathered in since it started using the name prior, but that isn’t the case for the new owners, Milne said. Instead, BNB-Buddy is awaiting approval from Olympic authorities to use “Olympic” in the hotel’s tag proposed tagline, “An Olympic Inn at the heart of Lake Placid.”