FALLS CITY - Mitch Glaeser told people "once a diamond, always a diamond" when he bought a more than 80-year-old hotel almost two years ago.

On Wednesday, the Florida businessman showed Falls City the kind of jewel he had in mind, unveiling the 16 renovated rooms and suites on the hotel's fourth floor. The deluxe accommodations feature thick carpeting, solid wood furnishings, Jacuzzi tubs and darkly stained doors.

"We have polished one of the sides of the diamond," he told an audience that attended an open house for the hotel he has renamed The Grand Weaver.

Although the project still has a long way to go - the other three floors remain under renovation - what's been finished impressed everyone who got an early tour. Gov. Dave Heineman told the crowd he has stayed in some of the best hotels in the country.

"None is better than what you're going to see on the fourth floor," he said.

Stories of successful entrepreneurs who've come home to their small towns to reinvest aren't unusual. But this isn't that story.

Before he bought the former Hotel Stephenson in 2007, Glaeser had never set foot in Falls City. He has no relatives in the area, or the entire state for that matter.

What's more, since he bought the old hotel, Glaeser, 46, has purchased four other buildings - a former library, a dilapidated theater, a vacant bank and a downtown building that houses a pizzeria and closed gun shop. The library has already become a pharmacy, and Glaeser hopes to turn the theater into a community performing arts center and the bank into a banquet hall.

Finally, he helped spur a local effort to secure funding for a new $32 million Missouri River bridge at Rulo to be built in 2011.

Although he's a major player in the business community in Gainesville, Fla., Glaeser is a one-man economic tsunami in this community of 4,600 in far Southeast Nebraska.

"He's a guardian angel come down from heaven to Falls City," said Mayor Rod Vandeberg.

Still, most locals want to know why. Why would a man with no connection to Falls City make such an investment in their town?

"There's just no pat answer," said Glaeser, who stands 6-foot-4 and sports a Florida tan.

To attempt an explanation, Glaeser said he has long attended the annual meetings of Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha and considers Warren Buffett a hero, more for his business philosophy than success.

He also mentioned his parents, who attended Wednesday's event along with his four brothers and one sister. His parents have given a home to 76 foster children during their lives.

"I like to effect positive change," he said. "That's what my being is all about."

But what got him interested in Falls City was a chance phone call from the town's former economic development director, Renee Bauer. She was vacationing in Gainesville in 2007 when a relative told her about Glaeser. So she got his cell number and told him a historic hotel was recently put on the market in Falls City.

Glaeser, who owns a publishing and apparel company, has a passion for real estate. Although he'd never owned or renovated a hotel, he was intrigued enough to make a trip to Nebraska.

What impressed him more than the solid bricks of the Hotel Stephenson was the attitude of business and community leaders, he said. They had recently completed major community projects and had plans to build a new $22 million hospital.

"There was a sincere effort to turn Falls City into the showplace it once was," he said.

Now he's fully invested in that effort. He has spent many days in Falls City over the past year and a half, working, eating in local restaurants and making new friends and contacts.

While he wants his business ventures to help do a greater good, he also wants them to be profitable.

He declined to reveal how much he has invested in the project so far, but as a hint, he said he calls the building's new elevator "Lambo," because it cost him as much as a Lamborghini.

For the hotel to work, it must to attract guests from Lincoln, Omaha and Kansas City, he said. While his nightly rates of $79 to $159 are low compared with metro four-stars, they're rather high for rural Nebraska.

So the hotel's fate is tied to Falls City's, which needs to develop a reputation as a destination. Glaeser is confident his adopted city will reward his gamble.

"This is really not about Mitch Glaeser," he said. "This is really about our ability - and that includes me because I'm a part of you now - to shine again."

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.