Eyes on SoDo
Remember that Letter of Intent?
We moved beyond that over the past month or so, and now have a copy of the first draft of the lease agreement. That’s cool, right?
Unfortunately, nope. It’s complicated is what it is. During the time we were waiting for the lease agreement draft, we found another spot. I know I know - what the hell are you thinking? You’re FINALLY closing in on a home and you bail.
It wasn’t cold feet, I assure you. I went through the cold feet stage and triumphed. We were about ready to bite the bullet until I went and looked at this new space. There’s good and bad about both.
Here’s a quick “pros and cons” rundown:
Old Space Pros:
like 2 blocks from our house
brand new building - makes permitting easy and fast
really generous buildout “allowance” - meaning the landlord would cover the costs of any alterations up to a point
3 months’ rent forgiveness
Really nice people!
Old Space Cons:
We would have to build out everything - ADA-compliant bathroom, plumbing, ventilation, and a nice-looking front window space for a future tasting room - to be consistent with the new building
It’s a retail space, not really suited for us but it would work fine.
Pressure to build a tasting room down the line
Sure, there’s a buildout allowance that offsets our rent for the first year, but after that it’s REALLY expensive
New Space Pros:
Industrial district (SoDo), which was our original goal
About 10 minutes’ drive from home
Low pressure move-in and build-out at our own pace
Industrial space: no neighbors to piss off, no HOA hassles, open form space
A bathroom!
Built-in dedicated alarm system
Dedicated loading dock with roll-up door
Way cheaper
Really nice people!
No tasting room necessary - just our own booze factory and warehouse
New Space Cons:
Not right around the corner
Old building - permitting probably takes longer and might need improvements to be compliant
No buildout allowance - we have to cover build-out costs
Not sure if there’s rent forgiveness yet
Here’s what it looks like right now:
Plumbing
Roll-up door to loading dock!
Rough walls and high ceilings
Nothin’ else around - but coffee and bars close by!
So, what I did was typical of me: I jumped the gun and said I was interested in the SoDo spot, then e-mailed the Jackson Street broker and said we had decided not to take the space. Problem is, nothing’s set in stone yet for the SoDo space, so…what I just did could put us all the way back to square one. Hope that doesn’t happen.
-j