Sportsman Motel undergoing remodel into studio apartments

On the heels of a couple challenging years, the Birkholz family decided to chart a new course for one of Lincoln's most iconic businesses.

By early next year, the Sportsman Motel will no longer be welcoming nightly guests. Instead, the motel's nine rooms will be studio apartments with yearly leases.

"I was hoping to get them all done by the first of the year, but it looks like it's going to be about February," said owner Dick Birkholz, who made the decision to convert the rooms in May at the urging of his son, Aaron.

Work on remodel of the rooms as studio apartments, complete with a kitchen, began July 19, but stalled after the first two were completed as Dick dealt with the treatments for his fifth different type of cancer, followed by a breakthrough case of COVID-19

Aaron, who is a part owner in the business along with his wife, said he tried talking his parents into converting the rooms a couple of years ago, but Dick wasn't sure he could do it, until he looked at the numbers earlier this year and decide to go ahead with it.

Both Dick and Aaron understand the decision to convert nine motel rooms into studio apartments will have an impact on the accommodations for tourists, but they also see it as solving multiple problems at once, both for the community and for Dick and his wife Linda.

First, was the health of Dick and Linda, and their need to "just simplify our life a little bit." Dick said the stresses of nightly rental has become overwhelming for them in the last couple of years.

Second, was the chance to create some affordable housing in Lincoln. A lack of housing has been one of the challenges to economic growth in recent years and the boom in the real estate market in the last two years worsened the problem.

"We had people who wanted to move here to work, but there's no place for them to stay," Dick said. "Several people made comments, that it's almost a bigger need for housing than for the motel business."

While some of the people who have been faithful guests of the Sportsman for 30-plus years aren't necessarily fans of losing their favorite accommodations, Dick said they can see the advantages and wish them luck.

Finally, the economics of the motel business also played a role in the change. Dick said it's tough to make money with at nine- or ten-unit motel in a good year, let alone in the last couple of years. He admitted the yearly rental income from the apartments will be quite a bit less than from the nightly rentals, but said they should actually see more income due to savings from employee costs, bed tax, and supply and laundry costs.

The decision to convert the rooms to studio apartments proved popular even before work got underway.

"As soon as he mentioned it to a few people, we already had interest. We had the first two rented out before they were even done," Aaron said.

Work on the third and fourth apartments should be finished in the next few days, with tenants already lined up for them.

"We're very picky on who's going to be renting. We're doing the whole credit check and background check," Aaron said, adding the rooms are also compliant with the Department of Veterans Affairs guidelines.

The remodeled rooms feature new flooring, soundproofing in the walls, a kitchen with full cabinets, a four-burner propane cook top, a microwave, a small convection oven and a small fridge.

The rentals, which are currently priced at $750 a month, include all utilities.

"We'll see where we're at the end of the year, where the utilities sit," Dick said.

Aaron said since they are studio apartments, they're set up more for single folks, or for retired couples who don't want to have a lot of bills. He said they're not really set up for families.

The remodel did cost the Sportsman one of its most well-known features: "A fireplace in every room," which has been one of the motels selling points for decades.

The fireplaces, which were back-to-back on one another on adjoining walls of the rooms, had to come out to make way for the kitchens and the new plumbing. Dick indicated the fireplaces probably weren't long for the world regardless, since they were cracked and burning through their boxes.

Rife with history (and possibly even home to its own ghost) the Sportsman has sheltered tourists for more than 60 years in its current form. Looking further back, the property has been a haven for visitors for nearly a century, as the site of six guest cabins built by Leonard Lambkin in the 1920's.

With its distinctive A-frame shelter extending out from an office building that originally served as the school at the Mike Horse Mine, until it was moved to town in the 1950's, the Sportsman Motel will continue to be a landmark in Lincoln, just with a different role to play in the future.