Hotel, restaurant complex planned for Grabill

GRABILL, Ind. (WANE) - Leaders in Grabill, Indiana announced big news for their small town Monday.  They plan to create a multi-million dollar tourist attraction to bring more visitors through their Amish country.

The first phase of the tourist attraction has already been completed:  Local store, Grabill Country Sales.  The next phase is a 34-room hotel (Schlafenhaus) and family-style restaurant (Essenhaus) complex called the Grabillhaus.  The restaurant will have Amish cooking and seat 360 people.

The $7 million Grabillhaus project has so far been paid for by more than 100 investors across the area, hoping to see a good impact on their small community.

“This is like an old fashioned cooperative here that people used to have a long time ago,” said president and CEO of Our Country Home Incorporated and Solar Usage Now, who is investing in Grabillhaus.  “This is the spirit here.  We bring a bunch of investors in and we build something.  It's because everybody who invests loves the community, have been here a long time, and wants to see him flourish.

Leaders hope to break ground on the Grabillhaus in three months.  It’s located on about seven and a half acres of land behind Grabill Country Sales.  They hope to have it completed sometime in 2014.

But that's only phase two, in a nine phase, $50 million project.  On the construction agenda is an indoor water park, dinner theater, flea market, stagecoach restaurant, trails, and senior living facility.

Elmer Lengacher is the Amish man who owns Grabill Country Sales.  He is said to be the creative brains behind this huge tourist initiative.

When asked what the Amish community in Grabill thinks about being a tourist attraction, Lengacher said it's getting a mixed response.

Lengacher previously constructed and managed the Save-A-Lot grocery store in Grabill.

Lengacher said he and other organizers are still looking for investors.  He can be reached at elmerlengacher@ochinc.com.