Future of classic Okoboji resort unknown after sale

OKOBOJI, Iowa | The future of a historic Iowa Great Lakes resort remains unknown while the community awaits more details about who recently bought the property and what that buyer's plans for it might include.

An as-yet unidentified buyer bought The Inn at Okoboji Resort & Conference Center on West Lake Okoboji for more than $5 million at auction on Sept. 28. The buyer's identity, as well as plans for the property, will be disclosed after the purchase is finalized in December, said Jon Hjelm, a broker at The ACRE Co., which oversaw the online auction.

Hjelm said there were 80-90 inquiries into bidding on the property at 3301 Lakeshore Drive during a two-week period in which bids were accepted online. With bidding up to $4.45 million, the final round of bidding took place on Sept. 28, when 10 bidders sought the property. Hjelm said he could not disclose the name of the winning bidder or the amount of the winning bid, but he said that the private auction added more than $1 million to the initial $4.45 million bid price.

"It was a good sale. It was an active sale with 10 bidders going. It was a fun sale," Hjelm said.

What happens next at The Inn is of interest to vacationers across the region. Some families return annually to the 155-room resort, which also has a nine-hole, Par-3 golf course.

"Some of the families have been coming here for 50 years every summer," The Inn sales manager Mitch Brown told the Journal earlier this year.

Reservations currently are not being accepted, and it's believed that previous reservations are being refunded. A handmade sign posted on the outside of the building said, "The Inn closed! Thanks for a great 121 years!"

Resort officials did not return messages for comment.

The resort has been owned by six financial institutions since December 2013.

The property's roots date back to 1896, when J.A. Beck constructed a 24-room hotel on West Lake Okoboji. That hotel partially burned, was repaired and then razed in 1955 and replaced with a new resort complex that has nearly 400 feet of lakefront area.

The Inn, which had been under the operation of Great Lakes Management Group, in recent years underwent a transformation in decor to give it a soft, soothing lake-like feel.

Source:  SiouxCityJournal.com