What would you do on this?

[tonguesandwich]

Lease a 25k sq ft warehouse in the thickest of the population yet not viewable from street or buy a 50 acre ranch for scream park that is 40 to 60 min from main population but sits in 16k population and cuts off the rural population in route to the main. Plus the ranch is self supportive in 20 horse borders. Self managed by barn manager..
Warehouse.. Get open this year .. Lease about 120k annual. Ranch 800k get open next year. Ranch I would profit a few K each month before haunt but not enough $ to impact my decision.
Or start looking elsewhere???
Ugh!!!

[tonguesandwich]

10 k a month would be what I figure in cost... Lease is 8200 month

[Abunai]

I haven't run a professional haunt, so this is based on what I've read, heard, and calculated:

At first thought, I'd opt for the warehouse because of its proximity to the customer base.

Two of the biggest factors in profiting from a haunt are attendance/throughput and marketing/advertising.
The more you spend on advertising, the more attendees you will get.

A rule of thumb I've read is that you need to spend $2 to $3 in advertising for every one attendee.

So, if you take the following:

X = number of people
Y = price of admission
Z = your costs, excluding advertising (rent, actors, utilities, insurance, props, costumes, etc.)

Z (your costs) = XY (number of people times the price of admission) + 3X (three dollars in advertising times the number of people)

So, to JUST pay for the 120,000 lease, and charging $20 per person admission, the formula would look like this:

120,000 = 20X + 3X
120,000 = 17X
7,078 = X

You would need to have 7,078 attendees JUST to pay for your lease and the advertising costs to get them there.

Easier to do in the thick of the population than in a rural spot with 16,000 people.

If you wanted to bring in $500,000, and this would be to cover profits and expenses, excluding advertising, the formula would look like this:

500,000 = 20X + 3X
500,000 = 17X
29,411 = X

You'd need to attract 29,411 people (at $20 each) to take in $500,000.

Is there enough parking to host that may customers at the warehouse over the course of your season?
Can the warehouse itself accommodate that many customers over the course of your season?

I'd probably keep looking (lower lease, big population).


Again, this is all theoretical.
I don't have any actual haunt business experience.
I'll don my flame-suit and watch the other replies to this thread.

[Karl Fields]

I might be looking at the, as yet, intangibles with the barn.
Is it zoned for your intended use?
Is there city water? Of course TN is a far cry from CA, but without a hard to get variance, well water cannot be used in a commercial venture out here.
Is there enough power? Typically a barn has enough to support itself only. Locally we are looking at about $100 per amp for utility to string single phase power to your pole and meter. Again, that's with a permit for a commercial venture.
Are the building(s) capable of meeting fire code?
How would the other users (horse owners) feel about sharing with a hunted event?

I would go for the warehouse

[tonguesandwich]

Thanks for the input. Zoning and parking are ok. I need about 120 spots for code.. Got that. The other property is a stable with one indoor arena and 5 outdoor lighted/heated etc arena. I would actually just build a facade small town I'm looking at buying the ranch.. Would of already but my wife isn't a fan of the main house.. So ugh!
Keeping eyes open thought.. Not feeling it. Fustrated. Thanks again!

[drfrightner]

I'll be honestly I didn't really understand what your exact question is... what are your bullet point questions? Larry

[tonguesandwich]

Rural large property/ranch purchase vs in city warehouse lease.

Low to no mortgage vs high cost lease.

Trade off.. The purchase is in a town of 16k population and 45 to 60 min of population of 600k

Lease is in the most densely populated part of Nashville..but the building is not visible from any street so loses drive by marketing.

Just weighing the pro's and Con's.. Really prefer to own but worried about numbers. How many haunts/parks do well from a distance from the main population? I can do a 50k sq ft haunt with no problem... I have massive shit and equipment. I would only need to spend money on payroll/ smokes and marketing.

Last temp haunt I did was 30k sq ft.