Mad Martha’s Ice Cream — the iconic Island ice cream franchise begun 50 years ago — is for sale, the owners have confirmed. The asking price is $10.5 million, which includes rights to the anchor business and its three brick and mortar shops in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven.

The properties were listed over the weekend with LINK, the Island multiple listing service.

The co-owners are Patricia and Paul Roberts. The sales broker is Jared Bicknell of Feiner Real Estate.

“We wanted to put the business out there on the market and see what happens,” Ms. Roberts told the Gazette by phone Monday. Ms. Roberts and her husband, Paul, who have owned and operate the business since 1997, hope to hand over the reins as they near retirement, she said.

The Island ice cream shop dates to 1971, Ms. Roberts said. In its early days, the business delivered ice cream to local restaurants and Island outposts from an ambulance sedan fitted with a siren.

Years later Mr. Roberts, a seasonal visitor to the Island and accountant by trade, had the idea to buy the business from owner Robert Young, after a client of Mr. Roberts declined to buy the shop himself.

Mr. and Ms. Roberts left their home in Westchester, N.Y., toting their four-year-old daughter and a five-year plan to buy the business without the aid of any bank loans. “We decided in February that we were going to do it, by May I was up here and Paul came up in June,” Ms. Roberts recalled.

The business had five separate locations when the Robertses first took over. Over time, the couple concentrated the business to its current downtown hubs, buying the Edgartown and Oak Bluffs locations in 2004, and the Vineyard Haven location — in the old Cafe Moxie storefront — in 2014.

Today, Mad Martha’s remains a summer staple for thousand of Island visitors. President Bill Clinton who was photographed eating an ice cream cone there in 1993. Ms. Roberts said their daughter Emily is now the manager of the Edgartown store.

The recent decision to sell was a long time coming, she also said. “We just realized it’s been 24 years that we’ve been doing this and it was time. We’d like to enjoy our summers on Martha’s Vineyard with our friends.”

The pandemic also complicated matters, with a shrunken workforce pushing the couple to shutter the Vineyard Haven branch this past summer — though Ms. Roberts said the pandemic played no part in the decision to sell.

Mr. Bicknell said the properties have already attracted attention. “I’m expecting a lot of interest and I’ve already had a number of calls in the 48 hours since I put it up,” he said Monday.

Ms. Roberts said there is no rush to sell before the 2021 season. “We’re not just going to walk away,” she said noting that she hopes to share her wisdom — and importantly, her recipes — with the next owners.

“The recipes came with the business — when we bought the business, the first item on the list was the recipes, so we will be going forward with those same ideas,” she said.

Reflecting on her time running the business, Ms. Roberts thanked the community for its support over the years.

“We get so much support from everyone whether it be people coming from far away or our local community,” Ms. Roberts said, noting the generations of customers she has watched from behind the ice cream counter. “The best part is when I recognize people coming in are kids who worked for me 20 years ago, but now they’re coming in with their families.”