Old 41 traffic drives sale and move of Village Haus

Jakob’s Village Haus is up for sale because the business is moving, permit pending, to what used to be Smith’s Garage just a block north on Old 41.

The Village Haus of Bonita Springs is up for sale, but drivers on Old 41 will soon see it popping up just one block north at what used to be Smith’s Garage.

Jakob Hammerle, the owner and sole employee of the business, put the German-inspired location on the market because his wife, Ingrid, was tired of dealing with traffic on Old 41.

“We had to take customers across the street to see our products and the traffic was just too bad,” said Hammerle, 69, of their sales office that was split between two locations. “She just wanted to sell it, and Smith’s is closer to the other half of our business.”

Hammerle has seen the traffic grow in the last 20 years since he opened shop in Bonita Springs.

“There is a lot of problems with crossing over (Old) 41 and over there we can have a bigger showroom,” said Hammerle of the new space that he can’t fully move into until all permits have been finalized. “Next week I’m hoping to get the rest of (the permit) so I can start work on the new place.”

Currently, the Village Haus sits on the west side of Old 41 but with Smith’s Garage on the east, customers will be able to visit one location and see everything the Hammerle’s have to offer.

“The population has outgrown the streets and when we started there wasn’t even an I-75 or a McDonald’s in Bonita,” jokes Hammerle who got his start in the interlock paving business 55 years ago in Germany.

Despite the traffic, Hammerle admits that the population surge has helped his business, which was the first of its kind in Southwest Florida.

“Nobody knew what this material was at first but now they know it and want it,” he said.

And customers will have a better way to get it now that Smith’s Garage will be transformed into a Florida-style building in as little as two months.

“We plan to paint over the sign since people still stop in and ask us to fix their car,” said Hammerle of the traffic signal- type sign that currently adorns the building. “The new place is like half an acre bigger and now my wife won’t have to drive customers through traffic anymore.”