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Relocating - Trials and Tribulations

J

John Barlowe

Frequent Poster
Messages
285
Loc
Holland, Oh 43528
Company
Frame Shop Art Gallery & Gifts
( If there is a better forum for this, please feel free to move )



As some of you know, I have been forced into moving my location. James Cook thought it might be of interest to post a thread concerning:

Moving and Finding to a new location...what you did, how you went about it, things you considered, amount of time involved stuff like that



A little background.



I have been in my current location for approx 8 years. It is a nicer upscale plaza in village of Holland, Ohio (burp of Toledo). The anchor store was a Grocery (Farmer Jack) and has been closed for maybe 6 yrs.? We stuck it out here in hopes that Kroger’s or another would be coming in. Finally got word about 3-4mos. ago that Kroger’s was coming - Yea!



Wait a minute though - they are coming but they are going to tear down starting with your store and rebuild a new BIG Super Kroger’s. We will not be renewing your lease. So I immediately starting looking for another location here in the village of Holland. ( There were 4 other tenants that were effected and I wanted to get a jump on things. )


My number one concern with finding a New Location was that I had to remain in the village of Holland. We don’t have a downtown and so there was really only the choice of two main roads. Suffice it to say I looked at just about everything. I felt like Goldilocks, some were too Big, some were too small, and none were just right. So there were compromises to be made, more about that later.


It took me about 2 weeks to find the space I wanted - about 4 -6 weeks of back and forth to get the terms that I wanted. And only this past weekend to get into the space to begin working on it. ( 3 -4 months total)


So if you are still with me, I’ll try to just post some updates as we go.

- - - Updated - - -

So one of the compromises that I had to make to get the location / price that I wanted was downsizing from 1200sf to 966sf. That meant that 99% of my backroom fixtures had to be rebuilt. Here is the plan I came up with and the work thus far.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10151255126223391.466890.37167583390&type=3
 
Very good John!
Relocating takes much time and energy and in the meantime the customer's work needs framing.
I like the white walls and high ceilings. White walls reflect the light, so save on lighting. High ceilings mean you can stand sticks upright and turn them around without hitting the ceiling as is in my location.

An ideal location is hard to find. Farm-barns seem good, but they are not in town. It helps to have other shops around you like cafes, pharmacies, hairdressers. It gives customers an extra reason to hop in the car and drive to your area.
Having a framing shop in the countryside reduces rent, but one needs to be well known and established.
 
what order were your priorities?
price?
location?
visiblity?
Traffic?
sqft?
apperance?
 
What order were your priorities?

  1. Location - as I said we are in the Village of Holland, Ohio but it is continuous with Toledo. ( the immediate connecting area of Toledo is not retail) It was our #1 priorty to stay in Holland. (There are many smaller communties to our west that come to us)
  2. Visibilty - There are only two main arteries that run through Holland, one E-W and the other N-S. There was a great space that was bigger than what I chose for the same money on the E-W highway (only about 1/4 mile from present location) but the access was terrible and it sat back in from main building - so you would fly past it before you knew it was there. The space I chose is at an interesection w/traffic light. We can have signage both on the front and side of building. APPERANCE - these two went together for me - I didn't look at anything that was below an 8 on a scale of 1-10.
  3. Traffic - great drive by traffic in new location - small strip center w/very busy ( long time tenant) ethnic food restaurant - other smaller tenants.
  4. Square Footage versus Price - If price were no object, then there was one other place that I would have choosen at 1200 SF for about double what I negotiated. However as it is, I chose what I believe to be the second best available space in the area opting for less SF to aquire that space over others that had less desirable location.

Our current location really is one of the prime locations in Holland. The trouble is that the centre sits back off of the main highway with outlots in the front. The centre had a Grocery store anchor when we came in. (That was a big draw for us - even though the rent was higher at that time) Sitting back here without an anchor was a hard blow to take for the last six years. With the new Kroger's coming, we would have been happy to stay put, if that had been an option.
 
Everything takes longer than you would think

So I have to hire a sign company to take down and reinstall my channel letter sign, as well as rework and reinstall my 2' x 14' box sign along with manufacturing a smaller sign. From the first estimate, the project is coming to around $4K.

You would think with a $4K job that it wouldn't be that hard to get companies to come out and give you and estimate. One guy that was out 3 weeks ago has never gotten back to me yet. Another company never showed up when promised. :mad-new:
 
John
I know you would think everyone would be hungry for work, esp. in Toledo..... but they may have all gone on the Govt payrolls and are happy as pie.
 
Here is the flooring we are putting in. 500SF for the showroom area with us doing the labor.

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll...lick-Resilient-Vinyl-Tranquility-4SW/10023444

10020809_rs


My best guess at this time is that the move will cost us between $12,000 and $15,000.
 
Weekend # 3 progress

Here are the photos of the progress we have made on this 3rd weekend of being able to work on the new place. ( I should say the photos have been added to the album - weekend 3 - floor partialy laid and design cabinets installed and a few other items to backroom and restroom painting has begun. )​
 
John Barlowe said:
So I have to hire a sign company to take down and reinstall my channel letter sign, as well as rework and reinstall my 2' x 14' box sign along with manufacturing a smaller sign. From the first estimate, the project is coming to around $4K.

You would think with a $4K job that it wouldn't be that hard to get companies to come out and give you and estimate. One guy that was out 3 weeks ago has never gotten back to me yet. Another company never showed up when promised. :mad-new:
Click to expand...


Well, I finally got a second quote on my sign work. Now this company impresses me. The fellow was only out here yesterday about 11am. Today I recieve in the mail a written estimate for the work. To top it off, this companies estimate is a a little more than $1K less. Have a few questions to be answered but will most likely have this company do the work.

If I choose this 2nd company, it won't be just because of the price, but this guy really understood what I wanted / needed done. The young woman from the first company just didn't have enough experience to communicate to designer what I wanted. (This company is the one that originaly made my signs 8 years ago)
 
You and I would think it wouldn't be too much to ask for some one to come out and estimate a $4000 job, but I have been frequently surprised. The big companies thing even $40,000 is too small, and it is too big for a lot of the smaller companies. In my part of the world finding a contractor that will do small jobs in a timely way is tricky. And when somebody finds one, they keep him/her a closely guarded secret.

That is some great looking cabinetry, John.
 
Kai, I understand what you are referring to but not the case in this situation. All three companies that I called on are long standing buisnesses. They all compete for same work and doing everything from very large casino and stadium and large commercial type work to Mom & Pop's like me. I think the one might just have had a full schedule right now and didn't want to be bothered. (very bad business though if that is the case - they should have at least followed through and let me know they couldn't take it on right now. As I [ like most customers] will not steer any new referrals to them.

Gregory, thanks for the compliment on the cabinets. I used to be a cabinet maker in my former life before framing. :smile-new:
 
More Photos of progress

Well on weekend # 4 we finished laying the rest of the flooring and installed trim work. Pictures added to album.
Painted work fixture cabinets and restroom (didn't include pictures of that, as I am sure you all have seen paint dry before)

Reading through many threads regarding lighting (Rob Markoff) I have an appointment with a lighting consultant to finalize plans for showroom lighting. Also hopeful that their is a program to replace/upgrade our existing troffers with more energy efficient models from local energy company.
 
Loving it! I think it is a grat investment to have great floors in your shop. A framer told me years ago not to skimp on the flooring choice and it is amazing how many people comment on my floor! Great choice!
 
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