Good day to All!
How did the China Dine-ah come about? Because, so many of you ask, and because I like to tell the story so much, I have decided to write about the topic this week.
Back in the spring/summer of 2006, I received a call from Richard Dowe, the previous owner of the building and Dad to my current General Manager, Sherri Glidden.
Richard asked, if I could help him sell a commercial building in South China. Even though I knew little about commercial real estate, Richard felt that because I was a business owner, I would have that general knowledge. I did explain that I had little knowledge, however, I would be willing to help and we arranged a meeting at the building that would eventually become the China Dine-ah.
The previous use of the building was a True Value hardware store owned and operated for many years by
Richard and his wife Barbara Dowe
and their three children, Linda, Sherri and Richard Jr. Three or four years prior, the business had been sold and operated by another family, eventually closing with the Dowe's taking back ownership of the building. The building had actually sat vacant for a year before I received the call.
I met Richard at the site and we walked the premises and then entered the building. It was very obvious that the building had gone three or four years with little or no maintenance and needed a lot of work. Upon entering the building, it was hard not to notice all the falling ceiling tiles and hanging insulation, as a result of a leaking roof. The racking from the hardware store was still in place, as was a fair amount of items that were sold at the hardware store. The facility certainly did not present itself well in the eyes of a prospective buyer.
I learned the building had been on the market for over a year with a couple of showings but with no real interest. If you had seen the inside of the building, you would understood why.
While still at the site, I told Richard the very first thing that needed to be done was to install a new shingle roof, securing the building in a water tight condition, and that the falling insulation and ceiling tiles needed to be repaired, which was pretty much the entire ceiling. I offered to help Richard secure a small residential roofing contractor that would install a new roof system as step one. Richard was agreeable and within a couple of months, 281 Lakeview Drive had a new roof. The next step was the interior work, which I left up to Richard to complete on his own. The building went back on the market and as a follow up, I called Richard several months later to see if he had any bites. He shared with me that there had been no interest at all. Concerned that no interior work had been accomplished, I asked if I could come out and look at it again.
I met Richard on site, we went in, and as I suspected, no work had been performed. There was no way that this building was going to sell in the condition that it was in, unless someone knew a little bit about construction. I asked Richard what his intent was, and at the time he was in his mid to late 70's, and shared with me that he had no energy to tackle the project of cleaning up the inside, and that he didn't want to put more money into the building. I felt badly, to say the least, knowing that the help I had offered was probably going to be of no help at all. I started looking at the construction of the building, knowing that he and his son had built it. You could tell that it was not built by "low bid", but by individuals who were truly invested and would be responsible for future maintenance and repairs.
At this point, I asked him "How much are you asking for the building?" He stated the sale price, and I thought for a second, feeling that the building had potential. I then called my wife on my cell phone and asked if she minded if I bought a commercial building in South China. As I suspected, the answer was no, without even asking any questions. I turned and looked at Richard and I told him I would purchase the building from he and Barbara, subject to financing and receipt of a warranty deed.
My immediate thoughts were a small strip mall, with either professional offices and maybe even a barbershop or hair salon. We closed on the building a short time later and my next stop was the town office to secure required permits, to get the facility cleaned up and to get it to a point where I had something to show potential tenants.
While talking with Scott Pierce at the China town office, I soon realized that the building was located in a resource protection zone, being situated near a stream that feeds into China Lake, and that it had lost its commercial status because of being vacant for over a year (told you I knew nothing about commercial real estate!).
Due to the length of this story, I will pick up next week right here where I left off, stay tuned.
Hope to see you at the Dine-ah and thank you so much for your continued support!
Norm
