As students continue to adjust to life without the Inn Between Tavern, owner Thomas Basher is already moving on to the building’s next phase: becoming a sorority house for the Sigma Delta Tau sorority. Closing its doors for good on Sept. 22, the IB is in the beginning stages of becoming a house. According to Basher, the project should be complete by the end of February or the beginning of March.
“We decided to turn the IB into a sorority house because I did not want the responsibility of 30-40 part-time employees and 2,000-3,000 patrons over the three-day weekends,” Basher said in an email regarding the decision to convert the space.
Basher explained that the first floor of the building will have a kitchen and four sets of four bedroom suites, each with their own bathroom.
According to SDT president senior Courtney Kristan, the sorority already has 16 sisters who have agreed to live in the house next year,
“Moving into the IB, some people are like ‘oh that’s disgusting,’ but they don’t understand that it’s going to be completely brand new,” she said.
Although the inside will be completely redone, there are no definitive plans to change the exterior of the building.
“[Basher] is looking into grants through the state to do something about it, but as of right now it’s still going to look like a barn outside,” Kristan said.
Basher explained that there were numerous reasons as to why he chose SDT to be the sorority who will call the IB home.
“SDT has the numbers to keep the place full and I have had a lot of the girls work at the bar for me,” he said. “Also, they never were very happy with their situation on Wadsworth.”
“Caleb, our handyman from last year, is friends with Bash and knows the condition of our house,” SDT vice president senior Kylie McLaughlin said. “He knew that Bash was putting [the IB] up for sale before anyone else knew he was making it a sorority house.”
Knowing this, he suggested to Basher that he lease the house to SDT. According to McLaughlin, Basher then started talking to former IB employee and SDT sister senior Jess Louis about about this possibility.
With sisters living at a different house next year, the question of what to do with the current SDT house comes into question.
“It’s kind of crazy because this house has been here since SDT started,” Kristan said. “Right now an alumni owns [the house] so their goal is to eventually have this as a junior house … it doesn’t look like it’s going to leave SDT.”
Although the sisters are excited about the future house, the Geneseo community hasn’t been as receptive to the idea. Kristan said she saw seeing people complaining about it on Yik Yak.
“We didn’t seek out the IB and take this opportunity from everyone,” she said. “We loved the IB just as much as everyone else.”
Basher said he is ready for the building’s next phase.
“I found out I really like to go to bed at 12 and get up at 6 or 7 a.m.,” he said. “I had a great time for the 39 years, but it is time to move on.”