Stokesay Castle listed for sale at $4.2 million
Banquet and wedding destination is on the market 10 years after the Gulati family bought it
LOWER ALSACE >> One of Berks County’s iconic restaurants and banquet facilities is back on the market.
Stokesay Castle has been listed for sale for $4.2 million, according to LoopNet.
The 10-acre parcel in Lower Alsace Township includes the 32,000 square-foot castle building — that has the banquet hall and pub — a 3,200 square-foot house and a 1,900 square-foot carriage house that serves as a sales office.
There is also an additional 18 acres of “developable woodland zoned residential” the listing said.
Jack D. Gulati purchased Stokesay at a bankruptcy auction in March 2009 for $623,850. The building had been closed for two years and the founder of Muhlenberg Township-based Fidelity Technologies Corp., a defense contracting firm, invested $2.5 million for improvements.
Gulati then sold Stokesay to his sons in 2011 with Charles Gulati serving as president. Charles Gulati was not immediately available for comment.
Thomas Kerchner, a Realtor with BMI Mergers and Acquisitions, said the property has been on the market for “maybe a month” and there has been interest.
“It’s a big property, and it’s a unique property,” Kerchner said. “There will be lots of interest. There are not many castle replicas around.”
Kerchner said the Gulatis want Stokesay to continue as a prime wedding and banquet destination. According to the listing, Stokesay has bookings into 2020.
The Sunnybrook Ballroom, in Lower Pottsgrove and also run by the Gulati family, is not for sale, according to Kerchner.
The original Stokesay Castle was built in 1240 and is southern Shropshire, located in westcentral England.
The Berks County version of it was built in 1932 for $250,000 by George Baer Hiester, who hired architects to erect a copy of the original castle on a site off Spook Lane as a present to his wife. The Hiesters used it as a summer home until 1956, when it was sold to a group of investors who converted it into a restaurant.
Charles F. Quade purchased it in 1978 and his family operated it until they closed it in 2007.