Bàbi’s Bed and Breakfast $465,000

Bàbi’s Bed and Breakfast is part of a ten-acre country estate located in the heart of the Amana Colonies, a National Historic Landmark. This major Iowa tourist destination attracts tens of thousands of visitors annually to seven unique villages built in the 1860s and 1870s. Visitors enjoy German-American restaurants, Iowa’s oldest operating woolen mill, a micro brewery, art galleries, antique shops, boutiques, wineries, gift shops, two professional theatre companies, an arts guild, heritage museums, golf course and much more. The Colonies are also home to Amana Refrigeration, now a division of Whirlpool.

The property is a secluded acreage of woods, meadows, creeks and spacious lawns conveniently situated on Highway 6 between the villages of South Amana and Homestead just a few miles north of I-80. It includes a five-bedroom private residence, a two-car garage, and a separate 5-unit guesthouse that has served as a bed and breakfast for more than 20 years.

The 2700 sq. ft. main house was built in 1915 and has been significantly restored and upgraded since 2002 (a list of these upgrades is available upon request). It contains four bedrooms and two baths on the second floor, a master bedroom/bath suite on the main floor, plus living room, dining room, half-bath, breakfast eating room, very large pro-style kitchen, and laundry/pantry area. House has hot water radiator heat and a separate central AC system. Guests come to the main house for breakfast and to socialize. The current owners use the remainder of the house as their private residence although previous owners rented rooms in the house as well.

The 1700 sq. ft. guesthouse (built in 1970, remodeled in 1990, and upgraded in 2003) will be sold completely furnished. It has four units on the ground floor each with separate entrance, private bath, and individual HVAC unit. The fifth unit is a large suite on the second floor of the guesthouse with two entrances, bath, small kitchen, living room, bedroom, and two HVAC units and is essentially a one-bedroom apartment which could be rented as such. The building also contains a separate laundry/storage room; the basement is fully accessible from the back and contains a 3+ stall garage which is used for tractors and other equipment.

A variety of acreage and yard equipment can be part of the negociated sale; these include a 1939 Ford 9N tractor with brush mower, field plow, pull blade, corn planter, disk, cultivator, harrow, wagon, etc. and at least one (maybe two) John Deere 345 lawn tractor(s) with mower deck(s), snow blade and wagon.

The major cities of Iowa City and Cedar Rapids are each just 20 miles away. Iowa City includes the University of Iowa with its intellectual, cultural, and sports amenities, the world renowned University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and Coral Ridge, the largest shopping mall in eastern Iowa. Cedar Rapids includes major shopping plus the food processing companies of Quaker Oats, General Mills, and ADM as well as avionics giant Rockwell-Collins.

The current owners have used the bed and breakfast business to supplement their retirement incomes. They take time off for grandchildren and travel; new owners could easily increase income by 30-50%. The owners have been active members of the Amana Colonies Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Amana Villages Association, and the Amana Arts Guild.