Huge Change Nobody Will Notice

Two months ago a real estate agent called me out of the blue.  The owner of the bar's parking lot was ridiculously behind on her taxes as well as having other obligations and was finally ready to put the parking lot up for sale.  The owner wanted to give us the first chance and buying it.

Since then, we've been working with the owner to purchase it.  Today, escrow closed and the parking lot is now ours.

This is actually a very, very big deal for at least one very good reason.

If the bar ever burned down to the ground, we would be unable to rebuild it on the current land.  This is because of current building codes requiring clearances between a building and the property line.  Currently, those clearances do not exist but we're "grandfathered" in.   If we had to rebuild from the ground up, we'd have to make the bar more narrow and further back from the sidewalk and a bunch of other things that aren't very awesome.

As a result of that possibility of looming disaster, our long term goals have always included purchasing the lot and legally merging the two properties into one.  It may sound a little vulture-ish (and maybe it is) but I was watching and waiting for the taxes to become so past due that the lot was put up for a tax-lien auction.  And that was going to happen next year.  But, not any more.  The crappy vacant lot next door is now ours.  (Why do I keep buying dilapidated properties???  :) )

Now, with the acquisition of the parking lot, we can merge the properties into one and avoid having that potential looming disaster over us.

Don't expect too much to change with the parking lot in the short term.  We've priced getting it repaved and it runs from about $5,000 to put what amounts to a Band-Aid on it and make it pretty to $17,000 and $30,000+ to do it right. (Holy Crap!)

So, there it is.  One of the "Big Things" we mentioned at the beginning of January.

Liquor License Transfer Complete!

There was no update yesterday since both Karl and I were running around Fresno doing things that needed to happen for the bar.

Most notably, bringing money to the escrow company so the liquor license transfer can be completed.  Which was done.  Earlier this morning, escrow closed and the liquor license is now offically ours.

WE CAN SELL DRINKS!  (Well, kinda.  We don't yet have a place that is licensed in which we can legally sell anything much less alcohol.)

Booze For Sale!

Well, not quite.

Over the weekend, I checked the ABC's website for the status of the liquor license transfer.  Turns out, it's in our name and is shown as "Active".  So, it's ours!  We can sell alcohol!  Now, if we only had a place to sell it in...

(Escrow hasn't quite closed on the transfer.  We're waiting on an official, written release of the transfer from the ABC to be sent to the escrow company.  With the license in our name and shown as "active" I don't know why that release wouldn't be arriving today.  If it didn't arrive over the weekend.)

Phoenix Feathers Flying

Holy Flaming Bird on a Stick!

Lots of news came our way yesterday.  (Which is probably why there was no blog post yesterday.)

First off, we got a call to come to Fresno to sign escrow paperwork for the liquor license.  (The ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) and Escrow companies got into bed with each other and decided to make a racket out of buying and selling liquor licenses; you must use an escrow company.  I suppose that's okay; it does protect both parties from bad things.)  So, we did that.  There's one bit of paperwork the ABC is waiting for from the state and then it should be all good.  It could be transferred as early as next week.  But it's not going to be much good without a building to serve drinks in.

And that's the next bit of news.

Our plans have nearly been approved and our building permit is nearly issued.  And we're back to needing to have eletrical plans submitted before the building permit can be issued.  And, as best I understand, it's not even "real" plans that we need.  From what the engineering firm wrote it sounds like all we need to do is indicate with the appropriate symbols on the plans where the new outlets and switches will be.  That may add some to the cost of the electrical but I don't think it'll be too much.  And it's a lot better than having to provide an entirely new electrical plan.  (Our chosen electrician gave the ball-park estimate of about $3,500 for that.  YIKES!)

If all this works out right, we could be ready to start tearing off the roof next week!

.....right when it's supposed to start raining.  Oh, well....

(Realistically, we probably won't be ready to start with the roof for about two weeks even if we get the building permit next week.)

It's Ours!

Just got a message from our escrow agent. Escrow has closed and we can begin construction.

We don't yet have a schedule other than a (very) rough one we'll be posting later tonight. The demolition of the old roof and some of the other required-by-the-city items is scheduled to begin almost immediately and we can't wait. (Well, I suppose we have to wait but that doesn't mean we like it.)