MARTHASVILLE — The company that aimed to turn local wine country into a national destination is now selling one of its projects.
The Florida-based Hoffmann Family of Cos. has listed its Emmaus Homes campus in rural Marthasville for sale for just under $1 million, according to a . The historic property is 12 miles northwest of Augusta, where most of the company’s winery holdings are.
The company, which started buying land and wineries in the Augusta area about three years ago, planned to turn the Emmaus campus into a boutique hotel called Chateau Hoffmann and also lodging for employees. The property is still listed on the Hoffmann Commercial Real Estate website, along with its other Augusta-area holdings.
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Founder David Hoffmann said on Wednesday that his company had taken on a lot of projects and that Marthasville was too far from Augusta, where the company has decided to focus more of its efforts.
“It would have taken us another three to five years before we got to the Marthasville project,†Hoffmann said.
Hoffmann announced in 2021 that his company would spend up to $150 million purchasing existing wineries, planting new vineyards, constructing a hotel and convention center, building a golf course and opening a five-star restaurant, among other things, all aimed at making Augusta a rival to California’s famed Napa Valley, the company said. Since then, the company has purchased or renovated more than 50 buildings in Augusta and opened several new businesses, including a new riverboat excursion on the Missouri River that Hoffman said sold $100,000 worth of tickets just last week.
But the company has hit stumbling blocks in recent months.
It recently closed the Hoffmann Schulte Bakery in Washington in order to look for a new location, it said. The company announced in June that it scrapped plans to offer helicopter rides and that it had to redesign the proposed 12-hole golf course.
The company also said then that it had to pause its hotel projects. That meant the Emmaus project would be delayed, but at the time, it was still in the works. Hoffmann said in 2021 that crews had already begun some work on the property.
The company this summer also backed off of buying a major shopping center in Washington, Missouri, due to rising interest rates.
The Emmaus campus was built in the 19th century as a seminary for the German Evangelical church. In recent years, the Emmaus campus organization worked with people with disabilities and housed them on their Marthasville property. Beginning in 2015, the group moved off the campus and into other housing.
Emmaus listed the site for sale in 2019. The Hoffmann company bought it in 2021.
The Zillow listing for Hoffmann’s 50-acre Emmaus campus, at 11900 Emmaus Drive, boasts about the property’s potential to be a winery, brewery or theme park.
“The possibilities are only limited by your imagination!†according to the listing.
Ethan Colbert of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Chuck Dressel, the former owner and current manager of Mount Pleasant Estates winery, talks about the changes taking place in Augusta as the Hoffmann Family of Companies begins to pour money into the town for renovations and updates aimed at turning the town into a national winery and vineyard destination.