The owners of the Zettlers Route 66 store in Ash Fork, Arizona, have put the business up for sale less than a year after opening it.
Kirk and Yvette Slack finished about 15 months of cleaning and renovations to the historic building on Route 66 and reopened it as a crafts and collectibles business April 1.
The Slacks made the announcement Monday on the business’ Facebook page:
For now, Zettlers Route 66 is closed for the winter off-season but will reopen April 1, 2017, if the place doesn’t have by buyer by then.
In a text, the owners informed me they’re asking for $200,000 for the property, which includes a 1965 Ford Falcon, about $30,000 in inventory, a 30-by-30-foot garage with seven storage units.
When asked why they wanted to sell, they answered: “We have a place on the Big Island of Hawaii and are looking to move back when we can.”
I think the store contains a lot of potential for a creative and patient proprietor. Ash Fork sits about halfway between the more-prosperous Route 66 towns of Seligman and Williams. Ash Fork holds its own Route 66 history, but interesting things for the modern Mother Road traveler are somewhat lacking there. A new owner or owners at Zettlers Route 66 could fill that niche nicely.
As for the Zettlers name on the building, Homer and Marie Zettler arrived in Ash Fork about 1930 and opened a bakery there. It became Zettler’s Market after World War II. Vernon, the couple’s oldest son, kept the business going until he and his wife retired in 1983, although new owners kept the business going for almost 30 more years. At one time, it was the oldest continuously operating business in Ash Fork.f
(Hat tip to Frank Kocevar; image of Zettlers Route 66 store in Ash Fork, Arizona, via Facebook)
I would be interested in renting the building and setting up a general market, I would then after a two year lease would purchase.property