Charlie Davis <Smokerbros@aol.com> wrote:
>
>Tell me more about this business model. San Francisco Region
>Solo 2 has a "Permanent Site Fund" of over $200K, but can't buy
>and pave a site with that amount. We've been discussing this locally, but
>know we need partners in the business.
Basically, you build an industrial park around a big concrete
slab. Rent out the buildings to car repair shops, tuners,
race gear suppliers, and anybody that would benefit from having
a place to do business Monday-Friday and have a store front
at the place where hundreds of car nuts would be gathering
every weekend. You could also rent to non-car businesses,
with the understanding that "the slab" would be closed on
weekends. Revenue generated from these businesses would
support the construction, buildings, and maintain "the slab".
On top of that, how many people do you know that live in
apartments, don't have garages, or are complaining about
having to tow their cars to events every weekend??? Build
a row of rental garages and storage lockers! I'd gladly
pay $50-$100/month to be able to leave my race car or gear at
the site in a secure garage, and I'm sure that others would
too. We've all seen the corrogated metal storage facilities
popping up like dandelions all over the country, and they
can't be that expensive to build or maintain.
Also, groups of people or clubs could get together and rent
out a repair shop for their own use, or rent an "office"
space as a clubhouse and equip it as a private lounge
for their members. Think of it as a private skybox at
the autocross site, available 7 days a week for club
meetings, entertaining, or whatever.
During the week, the slab could host driving schools, police
driver training, or whatever else you could possibly think
of that could be done on a huge concrete slab. Heck,
you could even run an auto auction on it, as long as all
of the auctioned cars are gone by Friday afternoon! (Right
here in the town where I work, we have one of the biggest
auto auctions in the country. They rent every available
piece of blacktop that they can put a fence around, and
just built a permanent facility with enough pavement to
park 5000+ cars for $32 million that employs 1,000 people.
If they weren't moving cars 24/7, it would be an *awesome*
site! They're a private, dealers-only operation. Our slab
could be rented out for mid-week public auctions of a much
smaller scale, and generate revenue.)
The whole concept is that you're NOT building an autocross
facility. That can't make money. You're building an
industrial park owned/managed by car people, which is
paid for by industry and will always be available to
autocrossers as a site. Almost sounds too simple, eh?
In this area, many communities even have industrial
business incubator programs, where they'll give you major
tax breaks and other incentives to open a business in their
community. These should obviously be harnessed.
All that I need is somebody to write the checks. The plan
is so multi-purpose that it almost can't lose money.....
-Arthur
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