Bidding on a City-Owned building

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 10:59 am

Hey John!

Some news: Just put a bid in on an awsome building the city is selling off. It's huge and currently going for cheap. (well as cheap as a 4 story building can go for.) I'm waiting for my lawyer to obtain some further info on it (like does it come with some sort of attached conditions like environmental clean-up etc) Anyhow. I haven't got all the details of dimentions yet, but outside it measures around 120' X 60' and has 4 floors with 15' cielings.

It's zoned as Comercial/Industrial/Residential. So I'm thinking of using the main floor as the studio, the second floor as the offices / control room(s). The third floor (later on) as a production video/photo/art studio and the top floor as my home! hehehe. As soon as I can get my scanner working again I'll send up a pic of it along with some of the proposed floor plans I've been thinking of (I'm designing based on much of what I've seen here and on your site with a "unique" idea of having the control room in the center on the second floor.)

I sure hope I can pick your brain for some ideas...

- Tanlith -

Sen · Post by **Sen** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 5:24 pm

gee..good onya mate...you really sound like a king

...four story building in the city...for studios...thats awesome man...happy bidding, and I hope you build a nice studio in there

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 7:41 am

hehehe... only reason I'm going this rout is the zoneing. I can live there so it'll double as my home (top floor).

As for the studio it self, that will be a slow process... I talked to a buddy of mine (plays guitar for me) and I'm thinking of letting him move into the third floor till I decide to make it into the Video Studio (I figure about 2yrs from now) He'll be paying half the mortgage. And When I say the city's dumping it cheap I mean 250k cheap. I got 120k stashed away in my "home buyer's" RRSP Account - I figure I use that and get a regular mortgage my payments should be around $1200/mo + Utilities + Property Taxes (which last year were $5600) So it'll be a little expensive, but within my budget. And with lance paying me $900.00/mo + his utilities for the whole third floor which is around 8500sq feet. (like almost 7 times the size of his current appartment) I paced the building off and guesstimated it at 120' X 60' but it's actually 130' X 65' and has a working freight elevator that would be perfect for moving pretty much ANY equipment between floors

We looked at the inside Yesterday and Rick (Another friend who's also going to be my contractor - really knows his stuff) said that we could gut the whole place if we wanted, as the outer walls don't rely on any of the inner structure for support. So with a little bit of work, my idea for the central "floating" control room may work out (of course I'll need support beams under the room, but it will be 15' off the floor with an arial view of all the studios. Rick's got me considering a glass floor

Might be a wee bit too expensive, but we'll see.

I gotta go... I'm getting a chubby just thinking about this!

*runs off to find his girlfriend*

- Tanlith -

frederic · Post by **frederic** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:25 pm

Awesome find on a commercial building.

Please, please, please, make sure you have a proper title search done by a company that is insured.

Trust me

Post by **John Sayers** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 3:04 pm

Please, please, please, make sure you have a proper title search done by a company that is insured.

he he he

:)

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 5:29 pm

See... that's exactly why I like comming to these forums... people always seem to think of the little details that I tend to overlook!

Thanks for the advice!!!!!!

Hey John! My contractor's been looking at some of the floor plans you've been comming up with here... now he's trying to talk me into hiring you outright so he can work with you.

We gunna have to talk estimates here by the looks of it.

- Tanlith -

Post by **John Sayers** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 11:17 pm

Sounds great BUT

Please, please, please, make sure you have a proper title search done by a company that is insured.

isn't that so true frederic

cheers
john

frederic · Post by **frederic** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 11:33 pm

Hey John! My contractor's been looking at some of the floor plans you've been comming up with here... now he's trying to talk me into hiring you outright so he can work with you.

I would highly recommend that option.

Post by **John Sayers** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 11:35 pm

thanks mate

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 4:42 am

Yeah... I just found out I was outbid by about 30k... I can afford to go 20k over the current bid then that's it for me. Although I'm totally in love with this building, I don't want to spend a whole 50k more than I had originally bid... I was planning on using that money on some of the renovations.

My girlfriend's been doing a lot of foot work looking at other prospects for me, she's got a list of 5 other places I might like... I'm gunna go look at those and not let my hopes get too high on this one. (Heard a rumor from a friend that it's one of the "Big 3" that I'm bidding against... they're probably interested in tearing it down and putting something else up or using it as storage. )

- Tanlith -

Post by **John Sayers** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 9:15 am

who are the Big 3??

cheers
john

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 9:56 am

The Big 3 are Ford, general Motors or now Daimler Chrysler. They do a lot of biz in Windsor and a few other places in Ontario, canada

Winder is 15 minutes from me buy bridge or Tunnel

Bryan Giles

john, I am working on better pics, I have a friend brining his camera buy so I can shoot where I am at now with the construction.

Of Course my New studio is Very Tidy and not in total Disarray.

Thanks Guy

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 10:31 am

Hey! Lemme know when ya put em up! I'd love to see!

So you're in the Detroit area eh? Sup, my american cousin?

- Tanlith -

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 11:55 am

OK I decided on a different building. My GF took me around to look at some other prospects and I fell in love with a much smaller building, but it had more potential and is WAY cheaper.

No one else is even interested in it, and we figure we should close the deal within 30-40 days at the most.

It's an old 2 room school house in the county. About 10 min drive south of Windsor. I was able to get a copy of the floor plans, and redrew them in SmartDraw. (sort of... I'm still getting the hang of the program.

I'm going to need to resurface the roof, and I'm considering changing it to a peaked roof. (It's flat). The building is on a 2.5 acre lot closer to the road, leaving a huge back lot. It's zoned Commercial/residential (The previous owner used it as a lot for his towing co.) I figure with a little landscaping, and TLC it'll be a sweet place!

And I can build a small cosy house at the back of the lot. Over all it'll probably cost me about 60K less than the other building. I attached a JPG of the floor plan... the rooms (all of them) are a real decent size.

The Boiler room / teacher's washroom has already had the wall removed between and would serve nicely as a lounge / reception area if I can open it up a bit more.

I'll leave the washrooms as is (One was used as storage, but the basic plumbing is more or less intact) The office is a nice size, and considering I need to rebuild the roof, (Rick says it's not worth fixing) I should be able ro remove some / most of the center wall between the classrooms allowing me to centralize the control room there...

This is definitely the one I'm going for! As soon as I get an idea for the floor plan I'll send it up! Oh yeah... the whole back wall is mostly window as you can see, and Rick said she could probably extend the building back another 30' for around 30-40K (Depending on what materials we decide on) if I want... what do you think? Instead of removing the center wall, should I add 30" to the back (that would be the window'd wall on the drawing) and put the control room there? I kinda like her idea, cause I'd like to have another room for doing media replication.

- Tanlith -

Post by **John Sayers** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 12:17 pm

wow - that looks cool - being on 2.5 ac you won't need to soundproof to hell

:)

cheers
john