Buying real estate for club/Liquor lisc.

[Reddrock]

Greetings everyone,

I am new to NCB and am very appreciative for the forum an the help you guys (and gals) selflessly afford to noobs like me.

I am an established promoter in my area (DC Metro area), who is in the beginning stages of opening a lounge in my area. I fully understand running a club is different from running the door and dealing with patrons but I feel like my experiences gives me a "one up" in my resume.

I am currently trying to decide whether to purchase a 3-5k sqf. warehouse space (popular location for Nightclubs and Lounges in this area) or lease the space. The reason I say this is because I don't want to buy the space and end up with problems such as liquor lisc., specific lisc. for clubs, etc. If I can't get the lisc. then whats the point.

What should I do?

[BostonDave]

In this market you may be able to get away with making an offer on the space that is contingent on you acquiring all the necessray licenses for your establishment. This would mean you make an offer, get it accepted, then start the licensing processes. You would close on the RE after your license approvals. It would be wise to do a ton of research on what is required and the timeframes before you even approach a property seller.

Im always a bug fan of buying over leasing especially if youre gonna be making some substantial investemnts in making this palce into a lounge/club...have you done estimates on the acual costs to do this? This will be your baby..your life so plan everyhting..failure is not an option!

Good luck!

[walawdog]

Ditto what Dave said.