Owning a restaurant in Maine (Portland, Lewiston: real estate, to buy, construction)

[Lynn and Russ]

Hello,

My wife and I are planning on moving to Maine within the next year or so to open a restaurant. We would like to find a turnkey operation, with a liquor liscense, and with living quarters above it.

Does anyone have any suggestions for locations, costs, obtaining a liquor liscense, etc.

We are thinking costal so we could operate year round and have enough local business during the non-tourist season.

Thank you for any help or suggestions.
Lynn and Russ

[irishmom]

Originally Posted by Lynn and Russ

Hello,

My wife and I are planning on moving to Maine within the next year or so to open a restaurant. We would like to find a turnkey operation, with a liquor liscense, and with living quarters above it.

Does anyone have any suggestions for locations, costs, obtaining a liquor liscense, etc.

We are thinking costal so we could operate year round and have enough local business during the non-tourist season.

Thank you for any help or suggestions.
Lynn and Russ

Have you looked at commercial real estate sites? This one had some great stuff...http://www.swanagency.com/commercial-properties.html (broken link)

If you put margaritas on the menu I'll be sure to visit! Good luck!

[Unhappycamper]

Look at Freeport. Freeport passed Acadia National Park for the top tourist attraction in Maine thanks to LL Bean. There is deceant off season buisness in that area.

[mainebrokerman]

id suggest looking at the top two commercial websites, loopnet.com and bizbuysell.com
both have searches.
good luck!!

three restaurants just closed in augusta, a pizza hut, and two on mainstreet
it seems they hard a difficult time competing with the new augusta marketplace restaurants, ruby tuesdays, red robins and longhorns,

personally, id like to patronize an independently owned local restaurant.

id suggest come to maine for a while and scope out different towns, check out competition.

i believe there is much opportunity for privately owned restaurants,,,just have to survey different areas.

good luck!

[bgrasser]

Check out Due East Realty MLS#20508
When the LNG plant starts construction, this could be
your gold mine.

[flycessna]

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. I owned and operated a rest. and also owned the building it was in. If you are determined to open one up I would highly suggest owning the building too. Portland south would be the only markets I would want to be in but portland already has a ton of rest. depending on you niche you might be able to venture to a more rural area like downeast. I know some ice cream places and or pizza joints that do the bulk if not all of their business during the summer.

[tkx7]

whatever you do, make sure you get a permit if you want to get koi fish

[Lynn and Russ]

Thank you for the valuable information. We are haeding up to Maine in the fall to visit vatious towns and research areas. The areas we want to look at in more detail during our visit would be: Bangor, Freeport, Portland, Oguinquit (we honeymooned there), Gardiner, The Stonington area and isles, Lewiston and a few others.

The ideal situation would be to buy a turnkey operation but we definitely want to own the property.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by tkx7

whatever you do, make sure you get a permit if you want to get koi fish

and dont have a stuffed seagull!

[mollysmiles]

Our mexican restaurant in Eastport closed this past winter (yes, you read that right!)--turns out paying taxes is NOT optional.....not sure what they're doing with that restaurant but we're really missing it!