A longtime landmark restaurant in Soldotna is for sale after 18 years with one owner.

Mykel’s Restaurant and the Soldotna Inn, located on the Kenai Spur Highway just north of its intersection with the Sterling Highway, was recently listed for sale. The owner is asking for $1.45 million for the business, which includes an 18-room motel, four apartments, a 75-seat restaurant, a bar and a banquet room.

However, regulars shouldn’t panic — things aren’t going to change overnight. Owner Alice Kerkvliet said she is waiting for the right buyer.

“If the opportunity came, (I’d sell),” Kerkvliet said. “I’m kind of a picky seller. I want somebody who’s going to be good for my staff and my customers.”

The restaurant and motel in Soldotna has been listed for sale for the last four or five years in Anchorage, but Kerkvliet said she recently switched it to a local listing. She said she’d heard it could take between five to seven years for a restaurant to sell.

Kerkvliet said she has worked in the hospitality industry all around the state but stayed in Soldotna — all the places she worked had their pros and cons, but the benefit of a year-round economy is a better permanent solution, she said.

Mykel’s Restaurant has a faithful customer base and has become a community landmark in its nearly four decades, she said.

The restaurant regularly hosts community events such as the Soldotna Rotary Club meetings and live music. She said she has enjoyed that local customers will come through year-round as well as the tourists in the high season.

However, now that her children are in college, Kerkvliet said she would like to sell the business and move more toward retirement.

“I’ve always been in the hospitality industry,” Kerkvliet said. “It’s been a lifetime passion.”

The restaurant has done well in the time she has owned it, and Kerkvliet said one of her priorities is to find a buyer that will treat her employees and the customers well.

To that end, she said she is willing to wait until the right person makes an offer.

She is not in a hurry to sell and it may be awhile before the right person comes along, she said

“I’ve got a really great set of employees and customers, and the buyer needs to be somebody who takes care of them,” Kerkvliet said. “That’s my first and foremost priority.”

Reach Elizabeth Earl at elizabeth.earl@peninsulaclarion.com.