Waconia dream house with fish pond, car showroom and vineyard lists for $3.445 million

Dean Hilgers first became fascinated with the Waconia property when growing up in that town. He remembers seeing it on his newspaper route at age 10, and stopping his bike to gaze at the land.

A few decades later, he owned the place.

During the years in between, Hilgers sold cars at a Ford dealership, bought the dealership, sold the dealership and retired in 2003. That’s when he set out to acquire the property.

“I went and knocked on the door of the people who owned the property,” he recalled. “They said it wasn’t for sale. ‘I can pay cash,’ I told them. A few days later they said, ‘Let’s sit down and talk.’”

Hilgers built a house on the property, which didn’t have one, and added numerous decorative and practical features. Now he has put it all up for sale, listed at $3.445 million.

“It is a unique, magical property,” he said.

He and his wife, Theresa, spent from 2003 to 2016 improving the almost 30 acres located in the historic Big Woods, a hardwood forest that stretches from western Wisconsin through south-central Minnesota.

They laid a half-mile road across the property from the main road to the ridge at the back of the property, overlooking Lake Waconia, and put 100 European lights along the way. They started tapping the property’s sugar maple trees, which turn bright red in the fall, and making syrup that they donate to nonprofits.

They built a 4-acre pond with fountains and a dock and stocked it with fish, which the grandkids love, he said. They installed buried fiber internet lines and had the power and phone lines buried, too.

In 2017, he had Lecy Bros build the 5,896-square-foot house. The company called it “a modern farmhouse.” Hilgers calls it “our dream.“

“We really built the house as a testimony to the land,” Hilgers said.

The house has five bedrooms and five bathrooms, a great room, a four-season porch, a sitting room, a family room, a game room and a bar.

The 14- by 18-foot master bedroom features a vaulted ceiling and chandelier, fireplace, wainscoting, an office, a large bathroom and a “walk-in closet the size of a bedroom.” The bedroom’s sitting area has large windows through which he watches sunsets.

It’s “such a nice place to start and end the day,” Hilgers said.

An enclosed chef’s prep kitchen, aka catering kitchen, is separate from the open main kitchen, so guests won’t hear pans banging when there’s a party. There’s also a kitchen on the walkout lower level. The kitchens have “appliances galore,” including a Sub-Zero refrigerator. Hilgers befriended chefs at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and at their recommendation bought an American Range griddle, which heats to 500 degrees to properly sear steaks, and had it painted blue to match other colors in the house.

The appliances can be operated remotely, as can the televisions, fireplaces and garage doors, the last of which is handy when a delivery person shows up.

There’s a car showroom that holds six of Dean’s cars, as well as the Corvette that he gave Theresa for Valentine’s Day.

Another Valentine’s gift for his wife was a treehouse, made from century-old cedar trees removed from the property, cut into boards and kiln-dried for about a decade. The treehouse is furnished with a bed and electricity.

The fireplace bricks in the main house are carefully symmetrical. An outdoor sitting area can be seen through glass doors that open, accordion-style, so “you feel like you’re part of the environment outside as well as inside.”

Hilgers carefully assessed the location of every rock and tree on the lawn. “I’m a detail nut,” he said.

A church is being built on the property across the street from the house, keeping it free, for now, from denser development. “All of this beautiful land will be preserved,” he said.

After a 2016 trip to the vineyard areas of France, the couple loved the look of the terraced property so much that they decided to create their own vineyard at the Waconia property. They sell the grapes to Parley Lake Winery to make into award-winning wine.

Now Hilgers wants to make sure the property falls into the right hands, not with someone who will sell off the land for a housing development or something else.

“It’s really hard to think about selling this property, but it’s time to think about our aging,” he said. “Whoever we sell it to, I want to get to know them. ... I don’t want to sell it just to get a dollar.”

Jim Schwarz of Lakes Sotheby’s International Realty (612-251-7201, jim.schwarz@lakesmn.com) has the $3.445 million listing.