For years, I’ve always tried to get photos of Old Mission sites that might disappear or turn into something else in the near future. Such is the case with Kroupa’s fruit processing plant on Center Road. We were driving out from town today, and Tim noticed a “For Sale” sign on the side of the building (which, frankly, could have been there for years, who knows), so we stopped and took a few pictures.
According to the sign, they’re billing it as a Chateau Site with 93 acres, potential for up to 7 homes, water frontage on East Bay, bay views, and partially wooded. Local realtor Bob Brick is handling the property, and you can read more about it here.
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The website lists it at $1,495,000, and notes:
85+/- acre chateau site on historic Old Mission Peninsula. Former farm and fruit processing center. Rolling topography with approximately 20+ wooded and the remaining open and tillable. Great Bay views and 222′ of outstanding shared frontage on East Bay and 4 shore stations. Rare opportunity to combine vintaculture with low density development – up to 9 splits available. Includes a 17,000 sq ft cold storage building and 2000 sq ft storage/office space.
This property has sat vacant for a LONG time – 1513 days or 4+ years, according to the realtor listing, though I’m guessing it might have been for sale prior to that – and it would be great to see something happen with it. Something that doesn’t involve a blanket of homes, which according to the listing, wouldn’t happen. Maybe that’s why it’s still for sale.
I’m not sure exactly when the processing plant closed down, but as I recall, we were hauling cherries there in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a side note, I was on the shaker crew at the time, and my cousin Steve Johnson was driving truck for us (meaning he hauled the tanks of cherries to Kroupa’s, where they were graded). If he didn’t like the score the inspectors gave the cherries, he was always very persuasive in getting them to take another sample. Steve is no longer on this earth, and I sure do miss him.
Oh, and whoever ends up buying Kroupa’s? We would really, really love to have that apostrophe sign. Because according to Frank Zappa, “the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe.” Yeah, I have no idea what that means, but it sure sounds cool.
[…] doors, like those to the departed tart cherry processors, have closed, but others have opened. Evolution is the key to survival in any endeavor, and the […]