Leasing space - High rent for high exposure?

[Jedi]

I'm in the middle of 2 lease offers deciding for a brew pub. 10bbl. Both locations are high exposure, with major access to residential. Both locations have good infrastructure for a brewery. Both have high total cost rent costing 30% more rent then industrial near residential.

One is a trendy area closer to downtown but far enough not to be downtown, fancy shared retail building.

The other one is in the burbs in a mall with the building on its own pad with one other tenant, has tonnes of high income residential access on the 3rd major road in a 2 million population city.

Spaces are between 3500 and 4500 sq ft. So big enough for a lot of seating. The smaller space has 16ft ceilings, the bigger space has 11.5' ceilings this needing more space. There is no brewery competition in these areas.

Financially its making sense in the forecasts for both. They are both the same price pretty much.

But I want to hear from people who have opened in high rent high neighbourhoods and ever wish they were in industrial with lower rent (lower opex stess) and lower access to customers or felt the high access was totally worth it for extra sales volume.

My second question is the value of being in the trendy area closer to downtown with mixed medium high rise and single residential or smack in the burbs near countless mid+ income single dwelling housing.

[Jedi]

Still looking for feedback. Thanks!

[BeerBred]

Not really enough information provided by you. What city? Will you ever distribute? Access to sewer lines? Will the smell of brewing annoy other tenants? I would agree that industrial is not the place for a brewpub. People don't usually dine in industrial, because there are no restaurants there. A brewpub is a restaurant that happens to make beer. Do you have any experience in either? I had extensive beer industry experience. Extensive. Then I opened a brewpub. Let me say this again, you are a restaurant that makes beer. 2 completely different businesses. Restaurants are the filthiest business in the world. I don't mean they aren't clean. You will deal with the lowest workpool. Everyone working in a restaurant is a theif, druggie, alcoholic or some combination. Are there exceptions? Of course. Do you know how to run a professional restaurant? Probably not or you wouldn't be asking the location Q, you would know the answer. I would have a lot of concerns here. Dude, I'm not trying to piss on your cornflakes, I'm trying to help you. People with tons of money expect tons of service and tons of quality in product and atmosphere.

It's not fair to ask "downtown or suburb" when we don't know anything about either location. That's why no one is responding. email me if you want private help.

[Jedi]

Not really enough information provided by you. What city? Will you ever distribute? Access to sewer lines? Will the smell of brewing annoy other tenants? I would agree that industrial is not the place for a brewpub. People don't usually dine in industrial, because there are no restaurants there. A brewpub is a restaurant that happens to make beer. Do you have any experience in either? I had extensive beer industry experience. Extensive. Then I opened a brewpub. Let me say this again, you are a restaurant that makes beer. 2 completely different businesses. Restaurants are the filthiest business in the world. I don't mean they aren't clean. You will deal with the lowest workpool. Everyone working in a restaurant is a theif, druggie, alcoholic or some combination. Are there exceptions? Of course. Do you know how to run a professional restaurant? Probably not or you wouldn't be asking the location Q, you would know the answer. I would have a lot of concerns here. Dude, I'm not trying to piss on your cornflakes, I'm trying to help you. People with tons of money expect tons of service and tons of quality in product and atmosphere.

It's not fair to ask "downtown or suburb" when we don't know anything about either location. That's why no one is responding. email me if you want private help.

I appreciate the feedback and concern. I don’t like sharing personal info on the internet and I don’t want to come across as bragging so I will leave it at my qualifications are not a concern This is my 3rd company, my second company is paying for my 3rd and I have no need for investors and this will be the 3rd “restaurant” in my direct family.

That being said I have already made the decision as I am not reliant on internet feedback to do so.

I actually was already biased to one decision before I made the post, I was waiting to see if feedback would alter my opinion. I thought my questions were basic enough to apply to any city as a generic question.

Don’t take this the wrong way but you seem quite jaded about your brewpub experience.

[BeerBred]

I'm very glad to hear you have restaurant experience. You never can tell the background of people who post on here. I had beer industry experience. I hired a guy who had run a brewpub before. Things got ugly very quick. He frequently disparaged my brewer (fat) and pissed off some customers and liked to ring up bar tabs. He didn't last long after we opened. We had way too many items on the menu. The whole food side was a disaster. 10,000 square feet of disaster. I was putting in 60-80 hours a week doing everything from host, expo, bartend, clean bathroom... I ended up with cancer from the stress combined with genetic history and probably smoking/drinking. So, yes. Jaded experience.

Very glad to help (free) on anything beer related. Equipment, style selection, brand names. I come up with kickass brand names. Just reach out via email.

Cheers and best wishes.

[nohandslance]

Sq/Ft Price Vs. Sales

We opened our brewery in a Sh*t hole town in the Mohave Desert Leased for 25/Cents/Sq/Ft. Walking Distance from VW, Lockeed and Boeing Test Facilities.
With self distribution.
And a makeshift tasting room. We would sell over 3 barrels every afternoon in growler sales to the workers coming off shift.
Unless you have funding I would go for the lower rent`until your brand is solid in the market place.

Lance
Rebel Malting Co.