A major collection of Green Lake properties owned by Matt Rogatz is headed for auction, marking the next chapter for a group of businesses that have become part of the lake’s summer landscape.
Rogatz is putting the properties up for sale in a silent auction after deciding to step away from his Green Lake businesses so he can spend more time with his family. The properties include a bar, restaurant, spa and hotel, all of which Rogatz insisted that he has worked to improve during his ownership.
“[My family doesn’t] want to go boating and fishing and enjoy the summer and all the beautiful things that Green Lake has to offer anymore, and my priority is my family,” Rogatz said. “I have made the tough decision to say, ‘OK, I brought them to this level and I think it was all good. I improved all the properties and I think I teed it up for someone to take it to the next level.’”
In the past five years, Rogatz has purchased landmark businesses in Green Lake such as the Goose Blind Bar & Grill (2022), Evensong Spa (2022), Green Lake Inn (2021), Manor on Green Lake (2024) and the Green Lake County Safety Building (2023), along with six other properties.
He operates several of the businesses under the umbrella of “Our Green Lake.”
“It’s hard to run a bar, restaurant, spa, hotel, when you’re not present, and I’m not present because I want to be with my family,” he said. “So, I made the decision to do that.”
Rogatz chose silent auction as the path to divest himself of the properties on the advice of his real estate broker, who told him he could generate more money that way. He is allowed under the rules of silent auction sales to accept, reject or counter the offer made and he also is allowed to sell any of his properties before the auction.
Advertising for the Nov. 17 auction has gone out nationwide and digitally, so the word of the properties being for sale is out, he noted.
When asked if his employees knew about the pending changes, he hesitated before answering.
“My employees know that I am pursuing options as it relates to the businesses,” Rogatz said. “They are aware that one option is to find a new owner that can take the business to the next level.”
He also acknowledged the auction process would enable him to sell individual properties before the auction, and he has shown five of the properties so far. The Goose Blind Bar & Grill has been a point of interest, since it is now what he calls “a turnkey operation,” following the upgrades he did to the business.
Rogatz is sorry he jumped into so many purchases so soon.
“I think my biggest regret, and what I would change if I could go back, is that I would have not bought so much all at once,” he said. “I was worried that I might lose it, and that someone else would buy it, so I jumped and I said, ‘OK, I’m just going to make it work.’”
Rogatz thanked the people of Green Lake for letting him come in and feel included in the community. He also noted that what he did was to try to better the community by putting money and resources into the assets in an attempt to make them better for the community and the people that enjoy them.
“I’m looking for someone to take it to the next level,” he said.
Rogatz noted that he wishes he could just sell the whole batch of properties to one person, but that was not realistic. Several of the homes he owns have not generated as much interest as the businesses, so the businesses are where he is focusing his efforts.
“I’m OK with downsizing too,” he said. “If I don’t sell the Goose Blind, the spa or the hotel, that’s OK, because I know I’m going to sell other assets.”
At that point, Rogatz admitted, it would be a matter of sinking more money into any properties he has left to make them even better.
“My goal was to try and make Green Lake a year-round destination,” Rogatz said. “That’s what everybody was trying to do, and I came up with a slogan and that was ‘Come to Green Lake and take a breath.’”
Rogatz has lived in Chicago for more than 30 years, commuting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, spending an hour and a half when it should have taken 20 minutes.
“You can go to Green Lake and it is such a gem. You can relax and take a breath,” he said. “Hang around in Green Lake when very few people are there and it’s nice and quiet in the offseason.”
The sales process may take months and won’t start until November.
He hopes local business people come forward to talk about buying one of them.
“I have really enjoyed working with everyone that’s helped me get to where I’m at today and I’m going to miss it if I sell everything,” Rogatz said. “I’m going to miss it a lot.”