The Farmer & Frenchman on Wednesday formally broke ground on a bed and breakfast that will add five guest rooms.
Work had already begun before the ceremony, and owner Hubert Mussat quipped “they told me we were having a ground-breaking” as he looked over his shoulder at the project just behind a recently added yoga studio that in the basement floor also contains a facility for growing mushrooms that are used by the restaurant.
But a ceremonial ground-breaking did take place and was emcee’d by Henderson Economic Development Executive Director Missy Vanderpool.
“Katy and Hubert have invested so much in our community,” Vanderpool said. “We’re here to celebrate that commitment to our community.”
Owner Katy Groves Mussat said the project will entail 3,024 square feet, and will contain five units for rent, each at 504 square feet and with one bedroom and a bathroom. A sixth unit will be a laundry room, she said.
The construction cost, Groves Mussat said, will be close to $1 million after considering furnishings and ground work.
She said the work will be done in phases and hopes the first three units will be ready to rent by next spring with the other two completed soon after.
Groves Mussat said the price per room is currently expected to $150 per night during the week and $220 per night on the weekend.
The start of construction comes after a long process in which F&F had attempted to construct the new building, but was at first denied because the county zoning ordinance at the time did not allow for bed and breakfasts of more than four guest rooms to be built on agricultural land.
F&F argued that, per state statute, it was exempt from the ordinance because the property is zoned agricultural and it is ag exempt, which among other options allows ag businesses to build without zoning to support agritourism. F&F took the issue to the county’s Board of Zoning Adjustments for a November hearing, which ended in the body tabling a vote till a December special-called meeting.
In the November BOZA meeting, County Attorney Steve Gold agreed the county’s zoning ordinance was correct and suggested that the F&F could build the six-room bed and breakfast, or farmstay, if it petitioned the fiscal court for a text amendment that would allow bed and breakfasts as a conditional use on land zoned agricultural.
Before the next fiscal court meeting, F&F met with county officials and got the issue placed on the agenda of its next meeting, when local partners asked the fiscal court to consider adding a conditional use that would allow up to nine guest rooms for bed and breakfasts built on agricultural land. That is eventually what happened, after the matter was sent to the Henderson City-County Planning Commission, which added needed definitions related to agritourism and the conditional use of bed and breakfasts on agricultural land in its recommendation. The fiscal court later approved it. And in March, the county BOZA granted F&F a conditional use which opened the way for construction to begin.
Groves Mussat on Wednesday thanked the community for its support over the decade.
“We are here because of you, your belief in us and your encouragement,” she said, noting that agritourism efforts like theirs succeed when the community stands behind it, creating opportunities for the people to reconnect with the land.
“We get up every day and love the work that we do,” she said. “You all have helped us reach that dream.”
Contributor Donna Stinnett and editor Vince Tweddell compiled this report.
