The final touches have been added to a new tourist rental on Jefferson Street.

The Brown County Barn Burner will welcome its first out-of-town guests this weekend.

Kara and Clint Hammes first looked at the property — which formerly housed the Barnyard Shoppes — two years ago, seeing possibilities in four or five different business uses. Their vision became more clear after purchasing it. The process began in March, right when COVID-19 hit Indiana.

The brand-new two-story building has four apartment-like units for overnight, two on the upper floor and two on the ground floor. The ground floor also has two larger commercial spaces: one, an event space for classes and gatherings that would include a commercial kitchen (still under construction), and the other, home to the new store Brown County Bikes.

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Kara said with six different spaces, it was like building six houses in six months, which is “Not too bad.”

“Our timing has been pretty fortuitous,” she said. “The stock market went crazy, building prices are up; if we’d have to (start) now, we wouldn’t have been able to do the project. It’s gone really well.”

They’ve completed this project while still holding down day jobs. Kara is an educator at the Brown County Purdue Extension office and Clint works as an engineer for BWQOHT, the parent company of Big Woods, Quaff ON! and Hard Truth Hills.

The Hammeses believe they are filling a need in the community, as tourist rentals can be limiting, they said in an April interview. Most properties do not house more than about 10 people.

Clint is one of four siblings, and said that if he and his siblings’ families all want to travel and stay together, they have a hard time doing that. If the families stay in a hotel, when the kids go to bed, that’s the end of their night, Kara added.

With the apartment-like space at the Barn Burner, families will be able to be close together. An apartment space will allow bedtimes to happen and adults to stay up in the living space.

The Hammeses have created a modern space with contractor Shaun York of York and Son Enterprises LLC. The four separate units are unified in similar decor style, featuring furniture and decorations the Hammeses have found while thrift-shopping and auction-hunting over the past two years.

The first guests are checking in Nov. 13, and they booked online without seeing any final photos of the place. “It’s heartening that people are reserving it anyway without seeing full photos,” Kara said. “There’s a need for this setup.”

The commercial kitchen and event space are still a work in progress, Kara said.

“The baseline of the systems are there, everything in the walls, underground,” she said. The biggest obstacle is the financing for appliances. “The cost of a vent hood and fire suppression is pretty expensive,” she said. “That piece isn’t on our list just yet. We’re going to get the other spaces open and then we’ll circle back to that.”

The Hammeses would be willing to work with a tenant in outfitting the space, Kara said, but it needs to be the right relationship.

“We’ll get around to it eventually,” she said.

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Location: 185 S. Van Buren St.

Info: bcbarnburner.com

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