Balloons Above the Valley for sale

Bob Barbarick has piloted visitors and locals in his hot air balloons above Napa Valley since 1977.

More than four decades later, he's ready for someone else to keep his business flying high.

Barbarick is selling Balloons Above the Valley, along with the three properties it operates from.

The price? $12 million.

“I have a heavy heart,” about his decision to sell, said the longtime Napan. After all, 45 years is a long time to own a business.

But Barbarick just got married and he and his new wife Kari Barbarick would like to do some traveling, he explained.

“It's time to take the next adventure,” said Barbarick, who is 75.

The combination balloon business and property listing is quite unusual, said agent Michael C. Holcomb of Strong & Hayden commercial real estate.

“It's such a unique experience to be able to be in a business that brings so much joy, creates such a memory and showcases Napa Valley in a unique way,” he said.

This “turn-key” business includes three properties, one at 603 California Blvd. in Napa and parcels at 5350 and 5360 Washington St., between Napa and Yountville. Those two lots total about 3 acres.

The next proprietor of Balloons Above the Valley will own eight hot air balloons, most of which can accommodate up to 20 passengers. All vehicles and equipment necessary to operate the hot-air balloon business are also part of the sale. That includes nine white vans which meet the flyers once they land.

According to the listing, Balloons Above the Valley currently employs four pilots, about 18 ground crew staffers, a 10-member hospitality team and four reservation specialists, “with growing demand for additional employees.”

Barbarick came said his first exposure to flying came in late 1960s. During the Vietnam war he was drafted into the Army, where “I did some flying and jumping in the Airborne,” he recalled.

But after the higher-ups discovered he could type (thanks to classes he'd taken at Redwood Middle School), he was sent to Munich, Germany where he worked in an administrative job.

“When I came back to Napa, I started learning how to fly” small aircraft.

In the 1970s, after seeing a photo of a hot air balloon in a magazine, Barbarick and some “thrill-seeker” friends got the ballooning bug.

“We bought one and pretty much taught ourselves to fly right here in Napa Valley” — before the area became world-famous for wine.

Barbarick was working for Safeway at the time. But he had fallen in love with flying balloons.

Hot air ballooning is “spectacular, adventurous and romantic,” all at the same time, he said. “When you are up in the air you are part of the wind.”

While he considered retiring from Safeway, Barbarick wondered if people would pay money for a hot air balloon ride.

The answer was yes.

After placing a very small ad in the San Francisco Chronicle, Balloons Above the Valley took off. Back in those days, reservations were done via U.S. mail and telephone, he noted. The first flights cost $45 per person.

Balloons Above the Valley currently charges $299 per person.

At first, Barbarick was permitted to launch balloons 50 days a year in Napa Valley. A number of times he asked authorities for permission to launch balloons on additional days. County law allows balloon launches in the agricultural preserve but doesn't make the launches a right.

Today, Balloons Above the Valley is permitted to offer balloon rides 225 days a year in Napa Valley, plus additional days in Solano County.

The business currently flies as many as 60 people a day, said the pilot.

Barbarick added that his Washington Street parcels are the only FAA-approved airport dedicated to hot-air balloon launches in California.

When the weather in Napa Valley isn't cooperating, customers can fly in his balloons over Solano County. The company launches about 50 or 60 rides a year from Solano County, Barbarick said.

Each of his balloons — or “envelopes” as they are called — holds 400,000 cubic feet of space, weighs about 700 lbs. and is made of “ripstop” nylon fabric.

The basket itself is 171 inches long and 48 inches wide, made from woven wicker and stabilized with aluminum around the stress points. The largest baskets also weigh around 700 lbs. and can accommodate up to 5,000 lbs. of cargo or passengers.

It's easy to tell this fleet of balloons from other local companies. All eight of Barbarick's balloons feature a spiral pattern, in multiple colors.

The balloons are made by Cameron Balloons which is known as “the Mercedes Benz of ballooning,” the pilot said. Located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Cameron Balloons has a reputation for producing high quality balloons that are the safest, easiest to control and the most durable.

They're also expensive. “The last balloon I bought was $149,000,” said Barbarick. His first balloon only cost $6,500, he recalled.

Naturally, there are specific safety rules all balloon pilots must follow.

In a 2021 news release, Penney and Associates explained that the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, regulates hot air balloon travel as they do all other aircraft. Hot air balloons must be inspected every 100 flight hours, and pilots must pass a flight test every two years to remain certified to fly.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), only 16 people have died while hot air ballooning between 2002 and 2016 — about 1 person per year. Going back to 1964, the NTSB has only recorded a total of 775 hot air balloon accidents in the United States.

Barbarick said that in all of his years flying balloons for his company, there has been only one serious accident.

In 1995, a 27-year-old woman from Dallas was killed during a Balloons Above the Valley flight in Solano County when the balloon made a rough landing in a field near Davis. The woman was thrown out of the basket and died from internal injuries at the scene, the Register reported. In 1996, a lawsuit alleging negligence was filed against Balloons Above the Valley. This past week Barbarick said his insurance company settled that lawsuit.

Holcomb said he's already talked to several parties who have expressed interest in the business and property listing. They include an investor, other balloon companies — both local and outside the area, said the agent.

He thinks Balloons Above the Valley would be a good opportunity for another Napa Valley hospitality business to expand their offerings.

“It's very synergistic to other Napa Valley experiences,” he said.

Jared Kimball, a member of the Professional Balloon Pilots Association Of Napa County Inc., weighed in on the listing.

“Bob Barbarick is one of the Napa Valley's earliest balloonists and has enjoyed a long prosperous career here,” said Kimball, who is also the owner of Napa Valley Aloft.

According to Kimball, it's not uncommon for a balloon business to change hands, but selling the business and land together certainly adds “tangible value.”

Ballooning is an unusual line of work and an even more unique business to own and operate, Kimball noted.

“Between its weather dependency, special insurance needs, skyrocketing fuel prices, equipment, staffing and the pre-dawn wake-up call, it's a business where few survive the test of time,” he wrote.

“It's a labor of love for us all who own and operate balloon companies and as such the community tends to stay small,” said Kimball. According to the pilot, a running joke in the industry is that “the quickest way to make a million dollars owning a balloon company is to start with two million.”

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