If you list it: Iowa Field of Dreams property sold to baseball fans
The Iowa farm that featured in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams has been sold, according to The New York Times.
Hundreds of thousands of fans have since come to the property to run the bases, walk in the cornfields and soak up the feel of the place, which the NYT notes looks much as it did in the film starring Kevin Costner. Costner stars as Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, who hears the mysterious words "If you build it, he will come," and is compelled to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield.
The farm property was listed in May 2010 for $5.4 million, with the vendors, the Lansing family, wanting to sell only to someone who would preserve the authenticity of the field, which has been free to visitors. After considering many offers and even inviting Costner to bid on the property, the Lansings after 105 years ownership have sold to Mike and Denise Stillman, who assembled a group called Go the Distance Baseball L.L.C., borrowing a line from the movie. The parties did not disclose the sale price. The new owners say they plan to develop the site as a baseball and softball complex, with multiple fields and an indoor training facility. The Stillmans plan to leave the field much as it was when Ray Liotta portrayed Shoeless Joe Jackson there.
The bleachers erected by Ray Kinsella, Costner’s character, will continue to stand near first base. The white house with the wraparound porch and the white picket fence will still overlook the field. It was all built by the movie studio in a few days for a film based on a fictional story about players from 70 years earlier. Farms prices near the 78-hectare farm near Dyersville Iowa have ranged, according to the Dubuque Telegraph Herald, for anywhere from $19,165 per hectare to as much as $85,604 per hectare for an improved property.
The Des Moines Register reported recently the Realtors Land Institute estimated the average value of high-quality cropland in northeast Iowa at about $17,297 per hectare which would have put the value of the property as farmland at about $1.35 million. The asking price reflected its status as a tourist attraction. The Lansings sold souvenirs but never charged admission.
