How do you locate buildings?

[Pennywise]

I've been working with my fire marshal to get a suitable location for my haunt. We want to use the fairgrounds and have a modular attraction outside, covered by a tent. The fire marshal said that he never had anyone ever want to have a haunted house outside. Usually a haunted house is done inside and the building needs to have a sprinkler system. No problem, but how you find empty buildings? Is there a place I can call? The FM said he need to do research about doing it outside. Is there info written up somewhere that I present to him that shows what is typically done in an outdoor haunt? I can probably send him the layout design showing the egress halls and fire escape plan. Anyone else ever run into this?

[son-of-sam]

Our state laws say if the structure is under 1000 sqr ft then you dont need a sprinkler system. So what I thought about doing is getting four 1000 sqr ft tents and line them up one after another because each structure is only a 1000 sqr ft. You also had to have a exit every 50 feet but that was pretty much it. Even though I got a location now the tent idea is still pretty tempting. A haunted house here that is ranked number one in the state[Asylum] And was ranked in the top fifteen by the travel channel worked out of a tent for there hole career [except for last year maybe the year before that] and they made a killing. Think of all the money you save on rent? I hope this helps.

[Pennywise]

Thanks. That does help. I am going to talk to the FM and see what he says about doing it way. I think if I show him the design and layout and show that there are numerous exits and egress hallways, there should be no reason for him to tell us we can't do it. I've been prowling my local commercial real estate listings to see what I can come up with, but most of the people who own those can't be bothered as they want to sell, not rent or lease for only 1 month.

[ravensmoon]

http://www.loopnet.com/

And then lots of driving and looking in the windows....

[son-of-sam]

Make sure he knows every structure is not over a 1000 sqr feet and the exits are every 50 feet and I think you will have NO problems. My state is super tuff and even have a fire safety department that reviews things before anyone else and they play for keeps [especially in Denver County] .

[Darkangel]

Locating buildings ate easy, it's getting someone to lease to you and finding something affordable that's hard.

DA

[HauntedPaws]

www.loopnet.com but many listings are hidden and they WILL call you to try to sell you a premium membership. On some listings you will see a realtor link, if you go to their loopnet site you can see the hidden listings they've provided .

Also try showcase.com

also the town will typically require 1 parking space per 3-4 patrons. I'm trying to find myself a warehouse currently and I'm in CT.

Also need an audible fire alarm too, least in CT anyways.

[BrotherMysterio]

How do you locate buildings?

I've been fighting the temptation hard to respond "MapQuest?", but since you ask such an excellent question, I can't.

C.

[Pennywise]

Thank you guys for all the help. We will be doing it outside since the fire marshal said we can do whatever we want and they have no jurisdiction over outdoor haunts. In the future, I will look for a permanent building to purchase.