Dorchester Times: What Are Your Ideas For Ben's Iron Grill Building?

Sunday, October 11, 2015

What Are Your Ideas For Ben's Iron Grill Building?

The building that once housed Ben's Iron Grill restaurant has been for sale for nearly 11 months.

While we've heard reports of some interested parties, the "for sale" sign remains.

According to an online listing with Woods Bros. Realty, the asking price has been reduced all the way down to $169,900.

Here's how Woods Bros. describes the property:

"Excellent opportunity to own a well established business with over $250,000 in upgrades and renovations. Includes fully equipped chef-size kitchen with tons of space and storage. 40 feet of counter space to belly up to the bar and ample seating for quests. Two apartments upstairs, would make a great extra income! Call for details."

While we are sad to see the "for sale" sign on the building that was home to Ben's Iron Grill, the property presents a sound opportunity for someone with the right business idea for main street Dorchester and the northern Saline County and southern Seward County area.

We would like to know what your ideas would be for this building, if you owned it?

No one know the Dorchester and Saline County market like our readers.

Leave your ideas in the comments section of this post by clicking "comments" below.

Click here to see the property listing and numerous pictures.

This property on the east side of Dorchester's main street is fully equipped and ready to go and would be a steal at the current price.

Here are the details regarding the building as we know them:

All restaurant and bar equipment is included.

There are 5720 square feet with this property.

Taxes in 2014 were $1,831.

There are two walk-in coolers, a walking freezer, television sets, under bar cooler, beer keg cooler for up to 4 kegs, taps, grills, 18-foot fire suppressant hood, grills, cookers, deep fat fryers, refrigerated salad bar table, pots, pans, dishes tables, chairs and more.

Everything an investor or group of investors would need to operate an efficient restaurant or any business that needs such equipment.

The atmosphere of this restaurant and bar gives it the capability of becoming a regional attraction.

We hope a creative individual or group with the right idea can make this property an attribute to the community.

11 comments:

J Master Jimbo Jazzy JeffJanuary 2, 2015 at 4:07 PM
The building needs to become something used more often -- a small-town grocery store combined with a cafe, bakery, antiques store. Something ambitious and that combines many things into one and doesn't compete with the bar across the street.
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AnonymousJanuary 2, 2015 at 10:21 PM
to make it break even i'd start by renting out the top floors as apartments
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AnonymousJanuary 3, 2015 at 3:07 PM
I heard a bar in lincoln wanted to make a steak house out of it if they could agree on a price. This would be great for our town/
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AnonymousJanuary 3, 2015 at 5:49 PM
There's no place in crete to eat, a town of 7,000, unless you want pizza or runzas. Please let a steakhouse come to dorchester, I'll go every weekend!
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AnonymousJanuary 4, 2015 at 8:53 AM
Many times on the weekend we go down town and the bar is full so we go to seward and there are lots of good places to eat there.
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super truckerJanuary 4, 2015 at 6:42 PM
Bens bar had the best ribs around I hope the new owners have them too.
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AnonymousOctober 8, 2015 at 8:36 PM
Are the taxes stated in this article for just the real estate or does it include the personal property taxes, too?
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EdOctober 8, 2015 at 9:14 PM
If I had the cash, I'd buy the building and turn it into two things, business rental space below, for several small businesses (like the bakery), and upstairs apartment space. THis could be a profit maker after about 5 years and a real attribute to the town. Imagine how nice it would be for a young business person who has a good online marketing idea but also needs commercial space, without going into debt
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AnonymousOctober 9, 2015 at 10:41 PM
How about a farm credit office?
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AnonymousOctober 11, 2015 at 12:10 PM
Dorchester needs leadership! Badly. It ain't comin from the village board and hasn't for about 20 years now. I mean just look, one of the board members has a property that looks like a junk yard right on main street. How can you lead if you can't lead by example? Lots needs to happen before I would invest in this property. I think it could easily make a go of it as a casual restaurant and drinking establishment, but first I'd want to know the town is willing to support me. The current board board, or at least the majority, shows me they not only won't work for progress but also will try to fight it. That's gotta change.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."