Location, Location, Location

February 3, 1986

For my first business I spent a year, at least, looking for an affordable place for our first restaurant. Back then, a search had to be either with a newspaper, or just driving around, craning my neck looking for any signs that might say for rent.

Today it’s so much easier and still, can be a frustrating experience. I know some of our students have spent years - literally - trying to find a place for their brewery.

After that first location, I’ve exercised my location finding muscles so that no matter where I go, I seem to see possible locations everywhere. I want to give you four of my go-to resources that have never failed me, in the order I use them.

Craigslist

My first stop is to pull up Craigslist and go to the office / commercial section in Housing. For brewpubs, which is mostly the type of location I am helping students out with, I type restaurant in the top search section. If there is a restaurant in the area that is available for lease, it will show up here. It will also show restaurants for lease in the surrounding areas as well.

I also look in the section called business, which is under For Sale. This may list businesses for sale, but also will list business locations for lease. Again, I put restaurant in the search column at the top.

Loopnet

Loopnet is a website that posts commercial spaces available for sale or lease. You can do a search in your town, or county, and then refine the search to what type of commercial space you are looking for. Restaurants and bars are a good place to start. But sometimes warehouses that were used for other purposes are a good choice as well. For example a fire station has great floor drains, as well as a dairy building or a mechanics shop.

BizBuySell

This is just one business broker website that offers businesses for sale. Of course I would rather just rent a restaurant space (or buy one), but buying an existing business is a real option. Let me explain.

If you wanted to build a brewery/tasting room, or even a brewpub in a location that had never been any of that before, you will have a huge amount of rehab to do on the space. Plumbing, Electrical, HVAC, Parking Lot, Grease Traps, Grease Hoods, and of course Architectural and Engineering Plans. In addition you have to go through the town to get a change of use done.

In most cases going from a restaurant to a brewpub, and even a brewery / tasting room, can be considered an existing use. That means not going to the town for permission. Plus an existing restaurant has all of that infrastructure already in place. This not only save a lot of time, but also buckets of money.

In addition, if you are not moving any structural walls, most likely you will not need an architect or an engineer. That should save you ab out $10,000 alone!

If you were to purchase an existing business, typically you only put 20% down, and the owner carries the rest. This makes financing the project more simple. But how to you squeeze in brewing equipment into an existing restaurant you ask? Shoot, I can fit a brewery into any space. Just look at either Colorado Boy in either Ridgway or Montrose. It might not be pretty, but it’s functional.

Hit The Pavement

This is still my favorite thing to do. You know your town better than anyone, so start driving and walking the areas you like and feel your brewery would do the best in. Not everything is posted on the internet. You may find a sweet spot that used to be a little bakery that has a simple For Rent sign on the door. You could also see vacant spaces with a realtor sign that didn’t show up in either Craigslist or Loopnet. You may also see a sign with a business for sale.

Bonus Option

In addition to the four ways I go about finding locations there is still one other that I have used (and it works). That is, if I see a location that I really love but is occupied by a business, I will contact the owner of the business and ask if they are willing to sell.

Don’t be shy about trying this approach. When you ask someone if they are willing to sell their business, it’s about the greatest compliment you can give them. Most likely they will tell you no, but don’t take no for an answer. Ask them to think it over and that you will call them in a week to see how they feel. What will happen is they will go home and talk to their spouse about your offer. Then the seed is planted and they start to think of all the other opportunities this opens up for them. I’m serious, it works more often than you think. You are happy and they are too.

Having a buyer means they don’t have any broker fees. That said, you need to make sure that the price they are asking is justified by their record keeping. The deal can be drawn up with lawyers. It’s really not that difficult. You don’t want their business, just their location and assets, but that doesn’t matter to them. They are now free to pursue other things.

There you have it, how I go about finding locations. Once you do this the first time, you will start to see opportunities everywhere as you expand your business. My wife Sandy just rolls her eyes every time I say “That would make a great brewery”. Our world is chock-a-block full of hidden gem locations.