Anyway, had the walk-through yesterday, and I must admit I almost peed myself during the several hour tour. Even though I don't own it (yet?) I'm sharing because the excitement is overwhelming. Very overwhelming.
The private tour was awesome, we spent a good three hours going through the place yesterday. They handed me a tube containing blueprints, though I didn't bother to open them. I instead opened them afterwards when I got back to work to realize they are a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. *sigh*.
We arrived before everyone else and did a drive around the property. There are three buildings, though I only have two in this diagram. The third building is right at the entrance and is much smaller, 20x30, and was essentially a large metal shed.
The first arrival was a uniformed security guard "who went for coffee" and went into great detail as to how it was "just a minute". The realter pulled up about 2-3 minutes later, and the security guard realized right then and there he was spewing his BS at the wrong crowed
Anyway, he got out of his car and came over and introduced himself (different broker than the last property, though same commercial brokerage company), we talked briefly while the security guard "fetched" a golf cart. Imagine that, a golf cart.We were first driven to the "maintenance building", which is the smaller building to the upper right. The security guard swiped a proximity card and we went inside. There were three trucks inside, two cabs and a tractor trailer with the forclosure victim's company's name on it. The broker said the trucks probably don't come with it, and neither does all the welding equipment, wrenches, power tools, and everything else in it. But the motorized overhead crane is considered part of the structure. There is a small (small being relative of course) generator outside with a hefty cummins diesel engine, labeled "100KW". Both garage doors have doors in them and there are two side doors facing the alley. Girder framed construction, coated on the outside with cinderblocks, with a steel uninsulated eaved roof, the peak running the long dimension of the building. I didn't measure the ceiling height, as it really doesn't matter. There's a semi inside and it clears the roof beams with at least 10' from the trailer top. The broker and the security guard had no idea how it was heated or cooled, but we eventually found several commercial sized radiators around the perimeter of the building. Couldn't find a heating unit, so not sure what, or if, they are hooked up to anything. Electrical is tied to the main building, with a junction block/cutoff for the generator.
Next, we got to preview the perimeter of the building which Lou and I already did, then back around to the front door which is at the very bottom center of the diagram. One door swings in, one door swings out, labeled accordingly with stick on lettering. Once inside, I'll repeat "wow, its huge", because hell, it is. Basically its a pole free, giant open space, with two sexed bathrooms, many fire exists, a wiring closet, full kitchen, six large offices, a long conference room and one weird larger office/conference room. There are outlets built into the floor and termination blocks (and marks on the carpet) where cubicles were installed at one point. The entire place needs a serious paintjob and new carpet, but thats okay, just an observation. Past the ladies room there was a door that opened into an outside gravel area, and that door hid another door that opens to the mechanical room, which is fairly large, and the wall closest to the rest of the place was covered with breaker panels, meters, and all the generator control stuff, the security control system, and a bunch of video recorders, all looking rather new actually. We went back inside, and around, and walked through a short cement hallway into an attached garage, which much like the maintanence building has a very high roof but its constructed of cinderblocks with steel beams and rafters, with a steel roof. This garage was more of a storage room, though it had a really old pickup and worn out box truck. They don't come with the facility either (which is fine).
The rest of the office space has a raised ceiling at a height one would expect (12'), and above that is a steel roof and steel girders, which are 2 stories high at the warehouse side, down to a little over one story by the attached "garage".
We walked back through the office space, Lou and I did some quick laser measuring, nothing too detailed, then we walked into the warehouse. If you like huge open spaces with lots of steel I-beam poles, this is the space for you. A good two stories high, all open, with flourescent double bulb fixtures hanging off the top beams, way down to about 1 story high. When we flipped the power on, a lot of them were burned out but it was overall very bright. Certainly bright enough to see the warehouse floor was wet for some time in the back corner, and there's a little damage here and there, but nothing really awful and nothing terribly expensive to fix (expensive being relative, since this is a huge facility). Every steel fire door worked well, all of the loading dock doors in the back are powered, and work just fine. Not that your average recording studio would need such things.
The warehouse is heated, but not cooled, though the office area has the standard office environment infrastructure to regulate a constant temperature. We didn't notice it right away, and the broker was quick to try and shuffle us away, but there is a huge 400-500 gallon above-ground diesel tank between the attached garage and the office structure. Because of the attempted shuffling, I imagine its not supposed to be there
. The warehouse/office also has two generators, the same model as the one on the maintanence garage, so thats about 1000A between the two of them. I couldn't find the transfer switch in the mechanical room, but I would seriously doubt they together provide 1000A, but rather the two generators are wired redundantly. Nothing to worry about just yet.I don't know what else to tell about the facility, but did I mention its huge?
Here is the thing, its actually too huge. Way to huge. When we had dinner yesterday, Lou and I discussed the place, and we kinda, sorta agreed I'd take most of the office area for a studio, Lou would take the maintanance building, and we'd share some of the office space. The problem is, what do we do with the 39548 sq ft warehouse? We joked around how we could collect old fire engines
but that was quickly squashed with a little reality. If we do buy this place, we could probably rent the warehouse out, but the property tax is also huge. Well, its huge because of the square footage quantity, but its a little low for the area so I would anticipate it going up when we buy it. While we could buy this outright no problem the property taxes are probably going to kill us.The waitress at the diner while pouring coffee suggested we start an indoor petting zoo. Lou's facial expression was priceless as he said "What?"
So, deal of the century, about 43,000 sq ft we don't need, and painful taxes, with the possibility of not being able to rent out the warehouse fast enough. Or maybe NJ's first indoor petting zoo, to send your kids while you come and doodle on your guitar, while you get a new engine in your race car.
Hmmm, think of the marketing. No, no, I've had too much scotch tonight.
