Casablanca for sale, too

[baffled]

Now Casablanca is on the auction block...

http://www.nightclubforsale.net/index.htm

 

[Dentist]

$1,300,000 for a stripclub that grosses about $800/week sounds great to me. WHO ARE THESE GUYS SHITTING? The place is a complete failure. I wonder how much they paid for it a couple of years ago when it was Tentaciones.

 

[yehduniyameri]

Putting back on my CPA/MBA cap for a moment, here is my take (offered in bullet points for mi amigo Ringo):

• 1) That was a pretty slick website they put up to promote the sale. They don't even have a website for the business itself. Maybe if they did the club would have been more profitable and they wouldn't have felt so compelled to put it up for sale.
  
  2) The website claimed gross revenues of $30K/mo, which is nearly 10 times VB's estimate. Everytime I've been by there of late, the place has been dead, so VB's number seems to be closer to the truth. But who knows?
  
  3) Taking their $30K/mo claim at face value (it may be less but it certainly isn't more), their $1.3M asking price would represent a multiple of 3.6X IF the $30K were pure profit, which obviously it isn't. As some might recall from my other post, 3.6X of NET profit would be a reasonable rate in the US. Even if their margin were 50%, their asking price has to be at LEAST double that (and that also assumes their gross revenue claims are valid). Sounds kinda high on this measure.
  
  4) The issue of whether the property came with the Kamur sale in the other thread. The property and building do come included in this sale. They say it is over 3200 sq ft. and land values run $150-160/sf in that area. That would mean just the property alone would be worth close to $500K. I don't know if thats true but it is in the heart of the downtown commercial district. Its been a couple of years since I was last inside, but based on memory and judging from the quality of the signage out front, they've maintained and even put some bucks into this property, so I'm sure its in good shape. Because of the value of the land and possibly the building, this business will probably sell for some big bucks, probably as an adult business because of the added value of all its licenses, but if not that at least for redevelopment as something else.
  
  5) I agree with VB's assessment that Casablanca is an utter failure as a business, but that doesn't mean it has to be if it had different management. I wouldn't call this exactly a turnkey operation, but try to imagine what a guy like Newman could do with a nightclub like that with such good infrastructure and a location in the heart of the Gulch.
  
  6) None of us know for sure, except Newman, how much Kamur grosses, but if we use the estimates that Danielson came up with in the other thread, it might gross close to 10X what Casablanca says it does (Kamur certainly grosses more) and yet the Kamur asking price is $400K less.

When you get down to it, anyone that purchases Casablanca is not paying for the business or the way its managed. They would be paying for the land, building, licenses, a SEMI-turnkey operation that will clearly have to be modified and location-location-location.

 

[J-Charm]

That place had such promise. With the renovations it should have been a gold mine.
What a waste.

 

[Mernematterce]

I have a much better price established for the joint. PM me if you want the "real scoop" as in SERIOUSLY interested party. Still...lots of due diligence to be done. Better have plenty more money for marketing and re org if you want to make money at this joint...

 

[L8-4-D8]

Casablanca for sale, too

Many clubs' volume of business, sales, and profits are limited by the size of the building. With a huge building, there is room for many customers, and many options exist. Try 10,000 square feet!

 

[kaleb segal]

Newman,
That might be true with a business like the BM, where customers are often packed in like sardines, but Casablanca's problem was not a lack of space but a serious lack of customers. What other options could Casablanca really have offered in a 10K sf facility that they couldn't have offered in the space they already had and which would have made any real difference bringing in the crowds? As TMan pointed out in the ZB Cigar Bar thread, good management can offer a surprising amount of services in even a relatively small space. With businesses nearly devoid of any customers more space more often than not just means more overhead.

I don't mean to take away from your pitch, which was clever, but you have to admit Kamur could probably handle its current volume of business in half the space it has now. To Kamur's credit, what it does have is virtually unlimited space to grow and which it conceivably could fill. Places like the BM and ZB (and Casablanca if its new owner ever gets its shit together) are ultimately going to be limited in that regard.

 

[Brkumlqnumvdo]

I was obviously joking about the $800/week gross. However from what I have seen on several Friday and Saturday nights when I go by on my way home,I can't imagine any meaningful income there. (10 pm to midnight)

 

[wvetmunvijtioxeaf]

My observation after many visits was that the girls actually did not pay attention to the gringos but would hang with their tico boyfriends. Also they alienated our group by giving a constantly different take on the discount. I liked the place during the transition and that got disgusted when I brought friends and had bad experiences.
Simply put.......piss poor management. I have spent my life in the bar/restaurant field and it always comes down to management.

 

[matthewspeed]

Prolijo, i bet you stayed @ a Holiday Inn Express last night... didn't you , sounds like you know your stuff!!!