Amana to have new wedding, events center

Amana will have a new wedding and events center now that the owners of the not-for-profit Iowa Theatre Artists Company, husband and wife Thomas Johnson and Meg Merckens, have sold the building that housed their theater for the past eight years.

Amana business owners David and Yana Cutler take ownership of the building, which used to be home to the Amana Barn Restaurant, on Jan. 3. Renovation will start after that.

The Cutlers own Ronneburg Restaurant, the Clothes Encounter and Yana's Clothing Shop.

Johnson bought the 17,000-square-foot facility for about $228,000 in 2008 and invested more than $100,000 in repairs and renovations, he said. In the past few years, Johnson said the 99-seat facility became too much for him and Merckens to operate.

But Johnson said they believe the location of the venue, next to the Guest House Motel Amana and other restaurants, benefits the city.

'We're very excited, not only that direction that they (the Cutlers) are going, but the two people who are going to be in charge of the new venue,” Johnson said. 'Amana has become a miniature Disneyland of weddings.”