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47% rent increase, thank you new owners.

triumph406

Diamond
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Location
ca
So about 4-5 months ago we had word the owners of the building I’m in were going to sell. Old news as they had tried on/off to sell for a few years. It was a power struggle between family members who wanted, and some who didn’t want to sell. Well those who didn’t want to sell lost the argument.

We received notices that on xx/xx/2018 we needed to available between 10am-12pm to allow the new prospective owners to walk thru and inspect every unit. If we weren’t available a locksmith would open the unit and allow them in.

I went to considerable effort to get the shop clean, as shops go I’m on the messier end of the spectrum, plus I have quite a few machines stored with tooling, motorcycles etc in pieces. So I wanted to make sure if the building sold I wouldn’t be seen as an unworthy tenant. I probably lost 2 days of production cleaning the place up.

As it happened they never did walk thru my shop, and the 3-4 units where the renter did not show up, the locksmith wasn’t called. Shop looked great though (for about a week!)

Then we got another notice. Be ready for a Phase 1 environmental inspection. Same BS, be ready for an inspection between 10am-12pm, or else there’ll be a locksmith who will open the door for the inspector.

So again I went thru some effort, hid all the oil cans/buckets/drums behind a machine, mopped the floors etc etc. The only area I couldn’t hide was the coolant tanks on the CNC’s. I tried as best I could to cover the openings to the tanks.

The Inspector who came thru ignored the CNC’s looked around, took a few photos, pointed at a 1 gallon can of WD40 and asked if “that was hydraulic fluid”. I said nope, it’s WD40, not sure they knew the difference, so I explained it to them. I think having the floor spotlessly clean helped that day.

We heard thru the grapevine the building had sold, we heard nothing from the new owners, we had to call them and ask them who we paid the new rent check too. The people who bought the building were residential investors, not commercial, and not very organized.

Then we heard the new owners were going to flip the building, my yearly lease had expired, so I was expecting some increase, maybe staggered over a period of time to bring it upto what some considered the local going rate $1/sq ft.

Nope, 47% increase in one month $1.013/sq ft.:ack2::ack2::angry::angry: Evidently we were paying considerably less than the local going rate, which made the value of the building attractive to the new owners. They paid $2.2m for the building, maybe with the increased rents a new owner would get it’s worth $3m.

Guess I’m going to have work a little harder, take on a few more jobs I don’t like doing, such is life…. I can't really complain too much as It's not worth moving as I'm now comparable to local rates now. I have a 5 minute commute, I don't want a longer commute to only save a few $'s As long as I don't get an eviction notice (and somebody has already) I guess I'm staying put.
 
I'm resigned to the increase, just didn't expect it in one go.

Keep your eyes open for a new place. If they get this chunk easily, they'll be fine with another raise, then another until the pigs squeal (no offense). So have a fallback if next year it's another 30% or more.

Shops are really vulnerable to this sort of screwing. It's one of the reasons I decided to buy, rather than lease, even though that brings it's own headaches.
 
Keep your eyes open for a new place. If they get this chunk easily, they'll be fine with another raise, then another until the pigs squeal (no offense). So have a fallback if next year it's another 30% or more.

Shops are really vulnerable to this sort of screwing. It's one of the reasons I decided to buy, rather than lease, even though that brings it's own headaches.

I don't think they'll be anymore increases (at least I hope not) When the last of the leases runs out, and all the units are at the $1.013/ sqft rate they'll be selling. They've told us they'll be painting the building, and redoing the tarmac, and as soon as that's all complete I suspect they'll sell. that's not to say the new owner won't decide to increase the rent. realistically I suspect I'll be moving in less than 12 months.
 
And you weren't interested in owning the building?

The only way an independent restaurant can survive in New York City is to own the building. If the business is successful, the landlords get greedy.

Why not a co-op, or some other ownership arrangement, with the other owners? Do any of the other tenants come from a tradition of argument? Any tenant a lawyer?
 
And you weren't interested in owning the building?

The only way an independent restaurant can survive in New York City is to own the building. If the business is successful, the landlords get greedy.

Why not a co-op, or some other ownership arrangement, with the other owners? Do any of the other tenants come from a tradition of argument? Any tenant a lawyer?

One of the other tenants had suggested that if everybody agreed we could form a co-op, but it was never discussed, this was maybe 5 months ago. There are probably a few in the building who would have been obstacles to any plan. In retrospect it's maybe something we should have fully explored. The old owners were very reasonable to deal with, some sort of ownership agreement might have been possible. Too late now.
 
Afaik no right answer.
You got screwed.

But you indicate the endall price is similar/inline with local costs .. so you are not too bad off.
Here in eu land we might have a chance of redress depending on country.
 
Afaik no right answer.
You got screwed.

We did get screwed, the previous management were quite easy going. I had an old Corolla, and an old pickup truck in front of the shop for a few years, we've all been given notices to remove vehicles in 3 days or they get towed. I kept the old pickup because I could store my camper in the bed, now with the pickup gone I have no options to store the camper for free.

But you indicate the endall price is similar/inline with local costs .. so you are not too bad off.

True we are at parity with the local area, so ultimately I can't complain too much, I had it ok for the 9 years I've been here.
 
Be sure to flush a bucket of cast iron chips before you leave.

We are not formulating any exit "strategies", no, none, none whatsoever, never even occured to me, of course not.

Better get some Cast iron jobs in I've been avoiding
 
My brother and I once had a music store back in the 1970's. The rent was very reasonable at $350 per month for 1,000 square feet. We had a great relationship with the building's owner, who was an elderly man. He told us not to worry, that he had no intention of ever raising the rent.

Well, he was a good as his word but when he passed away, his son came in the following week and told us that when our lease expired in a few months, the rent was going to be $1,100 per month.

That got us out of the music business in a big hurry after ten years at the same location. LOL.
 
Just to make you feel a little better about the increase: I pay $28/sq ft per year, which is why my shop is only 525 sq ft :D But I am located within a city (Toronto), rent here in insane in general, you definitely don't want to know the price for an apartment, as a junior 1 bedroom within 30 minutes transit of downtown is $2,200 per month and it only goes up from there!

I will be soon moving my shop further east of the city and anticipate my rent dropping to around $7/sq ft. Will be nice!
 
Just to make you feel a little better about the increase: I pay $28/sq ft per year, which is why my shop is only 525 sq ft :D But I am located within a city (Toronto), rent here in insane in general, you definitely don't want to know the price for an apartment, as a junior 1 bedroom within 30 minutes transit of downtown is $2,200 per month and it only goes up from there!

I will be soon moving my shop further east of the city and anticipate my rent dropping to around $7/sq ft. Will be nice!

Buffalo???

Is this where I'm supposed to make a wise crack about Canadian Dollars???

A customer of mine was bitching last year that his land lord jacked his rent from
$600 a month to $1100... He moved in in 2002, brand new building 6000 sqft,
an acre+ fenced. It was a stripped building, and he had to put in offices and
bathrooms and what not. But $600!!!!! a month for 6000sqft!!!

I'm not sure if he was bitching or bragging.
 
I was paying a buck a square foot per month for 1000 sq ft in an industrial park in California- in 1995!
That was the going rate back then. Kind of amazed its that cheap today.
 
Buffalo???

Is this where I'm supposed to make a wise crack about Canadian Dollars???

A customer of mine was bitching last year that his land lord jacked his rent from
$600 a month to $1100... He moved in in 2002, brand new building 6000 sqft,
an acre+ fenced. It was a stripped building, and he had to put in offices and
bathrooms and what not. But $600!!!!! a month for 6000sqft!!!

I'm not sure if he was bitching or bragging.

Haha no I don't want to go as far as Buffalo! I will be moving just a little east of Toronto to another neighbourhood called 'Scarborough'. It's crazy how much the prices drop as you move further away!

$600 for 6,000 sq ft is definitely bragging territory :D
 








 
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