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Old 03-25-2013, 10:43 PM
 
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A catering hall, beer garden, nightclub, private ballroom deal. The stage, if there is one, can be for live performances of what not. Is there a university nearby?

Let me ask, why did you do all those renovation if you wanted to unload the place anyways?
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Old 03-26-2013, 11:09 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trythis View Post
The cost of conversion to digital is coming down over time. A few years ago, it would have been $200,000 or more to convert my 2 screen theater. Now, I think it might be possible for $80K or less. Possibly even as little as $50K if you've got a line on used equipment. The problem is that it is a risk to spend the money to upgrade, not knowing if it will pay off. Most people want to buy a sure thing. They are usually investors or people who can't afford to lose the money. Either way, they want a sure thing. This place needs someone with entrepreneurial spirit and a good business plan and the ability to inject the extra cash for the digital upgrade.

Harry Chickpea, you are not the first who suggested that it's time to cut losses. The question is how. I'm trying now to sell or lease the building for any purpose that won't put my investment at risk. It isn't a matter of me asking too much money. I would entertain lower offers, but if I drastically lower the price again, people will try to get the place for much lower than the new asking price for an even greater loss. I've lowered the asking price from $450K to $330K to $285K to $275K. Some people think that is still too high, but I would point out that the building was remodeled a few years ago. I put in all new building exterior, insulation, windows, doors, plumbing, electrical, fire sprinkler system, heating/cooling, handicap accessible restrooms, drywall, floor coverings, some cooking and refrigeration equipment, and the necessary fixtures required to get a food license. It was all very expensive. This would all be beneficial for other purposes besides a movie theater. If anybody has an idea, short of giving it away, I'm all ears. Many people have offered ideas here in this thread, but I keep pointing out that what I really need is for someone else to come along and make one of them work. I don't live locally any more, so I can't operate any business there. I don't have money to start any new business. I don't have money for a digital conversion.

Honestly, the only thing I might have on my side is time. I can hold the property for a while longer if needed to find a buyer. But things are going on in my life that would sure make it nice if I could unload the place sooner rather than later. Anyone looking to move to a low cost of living area in Oklahoma?

I scanned through this thread quickly but your asking price is really irrelevant if the building is useless. Just to put the story in perspective there was a 3 year old movie theatre in Jupiter, FL a few years back that got sold and torn down. I believe there was 10 screens, new theatre in a bustling residential area. They sold the theatre on 2.6 acres for 19.5mm. Land has been vacant for 8+ years now and just resold for 2.5mm (value simply collapsed, I suspect it was a short sale/foreclosure deal). The original intent was for a local university to use the building for lectures but it wasn't viable. Someone paid 19.5mm for a less than 3 year old theatre in an affluent area and still tore it down so don't be surprised if your building meets the same fate.

If someone puts an offer in front of you even at 1/3 of your current asking price you may want to take the money and run. If the building isn't viable then it is worth salvage/land value.
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Old 03-26-2013, 11:13 AM
 
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Here is a link to the listing:
214 W. Gentry Ave, Checotah, OK, 74426 - Theatre/Performing Arts Property for Sale on LoopNet.com
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Old 03-26-2013, 11:19 AM
 
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1110 W Gentry Road, Checotah, OK, 74426 - Free Standing Bldg Property for Sale on LoopNet.com

An investor would be looking at something like this for just over 3X the asking price of the theatre. Long lease left (10 years), 50 store chain and a 7.75% cap rate.
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Old 03-26-2013, 11:22 AM
 
17,015 posts, read 21,702,067 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NJ Brazen_3133 View Post
A catering hall, beer garden, nightclub, private ballroom deal. The stage, if there is one, can be for live performances of what not. Is there a university nearby?

Let me ask, why did you do all those renovation if you wanted to unload the place anyways?

Over an hour to Tusla/Oklahoma City......so no chance at people leaving bigger cities for this place.

Remodel to unload/inheritance was mentioned also. Did the OP inherit a tired theatre and then remodel with the hope to flip it or did he just spend an inheritance to acquire the theatre?
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Old 03-26-2013, 12:41 PM
 
Location: North Idaho
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Well, I am not going to do it myself, but if the building is licensed for cooking. it would be possible to install commercial cooking equipment on the stage area and turn the thing into a culinary institute. Maybe with an associated cooking show. Film the lessons, get PBS to buy the series.

The lobby would have to be large enough for cooking stations for the students. The school might have to get accredited, and I have no idea how to do that, except that it should not be hard to find out.

The local Jr college has a culinary institute that they are getting $30,000 a year tuition for. As far as I can see., they aren't teaching anything but common ordinary blah restaurant food, and yet there is a waiting list for the program.
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Old 03-26-2013, 04:18 PM
 
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I didn't remodel with the idea to flip or unload the place. I did it because I wanted to open a movie theater. The condition the building was in when I bought it was sad. It had been closed for years and had some structural problems. It was incredibly out of date. I had to do many of the things I listed just to make it possible to open and bring it up to code. I didn't pay much for the property, but when I began finding out what needed to be done, it ended up costing a lot more than I thought it would. But I forged ahead. I spent all the money I had plus what I would have inherited when my parents are gone. I guess you could say I'm a modern day prodigal son. They are still living, thankfully, but my life savings and my inheritance are sunk into the theater.

I'd rather not spend time analyzing in this forum if I made a wise decision or not. If anyone is interested in operating the place as a movie theater, they should do their own market analysis. Mine showed that it would work. It did not fail. It just didn't do well enough in the first year to keep us there. We spent so much on the remodel that we didn't have enough cash reserves to carry us through the first few years that it takes to become more profitable. We got by, but our health insurance wasn't as good as the group policy I used to have. There were health issues in our family that frightened us a bit and weren't covered by our new policy which excluded this condition. I was able to find a job doing what I had done before my theater effort, just in a different part of the country. So, we pulled up stakes and left. The theater has been for sale since.

There are a few colleges in the area, but none in Checotah. The nearest is in another town 10 miles away.

I wouldn't say the "building is not viable" as CityGuy said. It is a solid, downtown building with potential for other uses. With the right equipment, it might still be viable as a theater. Selling for "land value" isn't really an option. The theater has no additional land other than the small patch it rests upon. Parking is all on-street or in the city owned lot at the rear of the building. The downtown location is not bad, but isn't likely to draw anyone who wants to bulldoze and start over.

Checotah is more than hour from Oklahoma City or Tulsa, but it is only about half an hour to Muskogee (populuation 40,000) or McAlester (about 20,000) and a few other smaller towns. It is minutes from Lake Eufaula, the largest lake in Oklahoma. Checotah is at the crossroads of I-40 and U.S. 69. Both are major highways. Most of the 20,000 people who live in the area go to Checotah to shop since they have the only big box store in McIntosh County, a Wal-Mart Super Center, along with other local companies.
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Old 03-26-2013, 05:21 PM
 
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Trythis.....Good luck on the property. I wasn't picking on you, just trying to understand how you acquired the building in the first place.

Not sure a tilted floor building with no windows, limited parking has a lot of other uses than a theatre though.
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Old 03-29-2013, 02:40 PM
 
Location: North Idaho
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Sorry, OP. You made a financial mistake and you are very unlikely to find anyone to assume that mistake from you and make you whole.

If the theater makes a small income, you can price it with an attractive CAP rate and take your loss. That will get you out from under it. Maybe you can find someone to buy it if it is cheap enough.
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Old 03-29-2013, 07:32 PM
 
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I know that most people will think like you, Oregonwoodsmoke. Unless someone has a better business plan than I did, the chances of success as a movie theater are not encouraging. I'm sure there are people out there who could do a better job than I did, but if you will recall I started this thread with a request for suggestions for other uses for the building. There have been some decent suggestions. I just wish it were easy to try them.

Right now, I think people can only see the building as a movie theater. Before it was a theater, prior to 1940 it was a hardware store and a furniture store. The town doesn't need any more of those these days, but it shows the building can be used for other things.

A person would be hard pressed to find another building anywhere in the area that has so much going for it, such as new electrical, new plumbing, new heat and air, new exterior, new restrooms, new insulation, new fire sprinkler system, and even the facilities to get a food license, and to get it for such a good price.

The much larger Atwoods building may be only about 3 times the price of mine, but it's likely that the owner didn't put all the money into the remodel on that one. It used to be the local Wal-Mart before Wal-Mart built a much bigger super center in town. It was there for years. I'm not sure who owns the building now, but Atwoods probably put more into it than the owner. Unless the owner is the original company who built it, and then they have received so much rent or income over the years it doesn't matter. They are just ready to liquidate.

I am not in a similar position. The assets that provide value in my building are not something paid for long ago. They are not something paid for by a renter who made their own improvements. If you try to build a building in a similar condition to mine, or pay someone to convert an old downtown building to such a modern condition, you will pay much more than I am asking. This is a good deal for someone who needs something like it. Just not sure who that might be.

Thanks for your time.
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