AUGUSTA — The company that touted plans to remake wine country here is selling another property in its redevelopment vision, causing some area officials to worry the company is further scaling back its ambitious plans.
The Florida-based Hoffmann Family of Cos. has listed 10 acres for sale in Warren County near the Washington Regional Airport, according to real estate agent John Fischer.
The parcel of largely undeveloped property is listed for $425,000 and comes with a sizable airplane hangar, Fischer said.
It’s the second time the company has listed property for sale in Missouri wine country. This fall, the Hoffmanns listed the historic Emmaus Homes campus in Marthasville, 12 miles northwest of Augusta, for just under $1 million. The company had envisioned it as a boutique hotel and employee lodging.
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The new listing comes as the company offloads some of its U.S. commercial real estate portfolio, including more than two dozen properties in downtown Naples, Florida, where it’s based.
Don Simon, Hoffmann’s Missouri CEO, did not respond to calls Thursday or Friday regarding the sale of the airport land.
But Ellen Knoernschild, treasurer for the Augusta Town Board, said Hoffmann officials briefed the board last week about the potential sale of some Hoffmann-owned properties, without getting into specifics. And the news worried her — especially the effect on Augusta sales taxes.
“That isn’t good for Augusta,†she said on Friday.
Together, the sales are among the signs that the Hoffmann vision is changing.
In January 2021, the company, then led by billionaire couple and Washington, Missouri, natives David and Jerri Hoffmann, announced plans to rejuvenate the rural community of Augusta with an investment of $100 million, aimed at turning the sleepy town and surrounding hills into a national tourism attraction to rival California’s Napa Valley.
The company said it hoped to open a new business or purchase a new company in the region every 90 days to pave the way for Hoffmanns’ four wineries to break into the international wine market.
The company has since purchased more than two dozen businesses and 1,500 acres of vineyards in Augusta and the surrounding region, spending closer to $150 million.
But the company’s vision for the region has undergone numerous changes over the past year. Some plans for new businesses and attractions have been scrapped entirely. Other businesses have opened, though different than when first announced.
The purchase of the airport land went public in September 2022. Company officials said then that they would begin offering three-person, 15- and 30-minute helicopter tours of the Missouri River valley by mid-October.
Those plans, however, were almost immediately grounded: The Hoffmanns determined they did not have clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration or the city of Washington, which owns and operates the small airport, to use its airspace or runway.
The airport, which is located across the Missouri River from Washington, is largely used for business travel and by independent pilots.
The Hoffmanns initially pitched a helipad and hot air balloon rides at their proposed Hoffmann Lodge hotel in Augusta.
But in August 2021, some residents complained at a St. Charles County Planning & Zoning Commission that the landing pad would be too close to a local church and cemeteries.
And others said the flights posed an invasion of their privacy and would be too great a disruption of Augusta residents slow-paced lifestyle.
By June of this year, plans for the helipad and hot air balloons were scrapped.
“No one is talking offering helicopter rides anymore,†Simon, the company’s Missouri CEO, said in June.