Inns Turn Into Homes As Owners Cash Out
Bed and breakfasts have thrived for decades by promising to make guests feel like family. Now, a number of B&Bs are being taken over by families who have no intention of leaving.In a side effect of the real-estate boom, scores of traditional bed and breakfasts are closing down as new buyers turn them back into private residences. Behind the vanishing inns is a simple equation: Many B&Bs are worth more as properties than as businesses. And with the real-estate market showing signs of softening, innkeepers now have an immediate incentive to sell out and reap a windfall. Rising interest rates have also made it more difficult for innkeepers to pay the monthly mortgage and still turn a profit by renting rooms to weekenders.
As a result, many operators have served their last apple pancake. In Lenox, Mass., tree-lined Cliffwood Street has one B&B, down from three in the late 1990s. In Cape May, N.J., the owner of the Columns by the Sea turned her beachfront B&B into separate condominiums she’s selling for up to $1.5 million. In Aspen, Colo., the owners of the Sardy House converted the inn into a six-bedroom single-family home, now on the market for $20 million. (The property also comes with a townhouse and an eight-bedroom carriage house.) In late 2003, the owners of Mount Misery Bed & Breakfast in St. Michaels, Md., decided it wouldn’t be much use wooing would-be innkeepers, so they marketed it as a private home. It sold, for $1.5 million, to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Photo by BURИBLUE.
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