Walking up the front steps of the newly opened Hotel Grinnell, it feels like you’re walking into a school building. That’s because you are. Built in 1921, the structure in the heart of Grinnell has served as a junior high, city hall and a church before being converted over the last year into a luxury hotel.

Angela Harrington, owner/operator of the state-of-the-art facility that opened in September, says the project was eight years or so in the making. A serial entrepreneur who has owned several businesses, Harrington joined the Grinnell Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau as its CEO in 2009.

“From the minute I was hired, the board was telling me we need an events center,...