Interested in buying an empty lot and turning it into a foodtruck hub. Any literature you would recommend?
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[{"id": "fwxcp01", "text": "Go to Cty Hall learn about zoning, traffic, environment impact before you spend any time on your project.", "replies": [{"id": "fwxd6pe", "text": "Thanks ! That is good advice, I appreciate it.", "replies": [{"id": "fwzo8j4", "text": "They might be willing to allow it even if zoning doesn\u2019t match. Cities love these types of projects.", "replies": [{"id": "fwzrluk", "text": "Yea. My city has a big restaurant scene with food truck festivals on a yearly basis so I think it could work, but I'd have to crunch the numbers. Mortgage  would be 15k a month, so I'd need enough trucks to cover that.", "replies": [{"id": "fxe2c5v", "text": "How expensive is the lot", "replies": [{"id": "fxes8if", "text": "3 mil.", "replies": [{"id": "fxf5ams", "text": "Seems risky !", "replies": [{"id": "fxf7mvk", "text": "Yea, the more I'm looking into it the less of a good idea it seems. I don't have the capital to develop the land and build something big on it, so I may skip the opportunity.", "replies": [{"id": "fxf7pta", "text": "I mean for 3 mil you could get a really solid multi family with much more guaranteed cash flow", "replies": [{"id": "fxf88xj", "text": "Yea, exactly. Food trucks felt like a cooler venture, but \"cool\" doesn't always bring the money.", "replies": [{"id": "fxfawic", "text": "Or look for something cheaper. 3 mil seems wild. Unless there\u2019s big upside for appreciation", "replies": [], "depth": 11}], "depth": 10}], "depth": 9}], "depth": 8}], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "fwyjx8d", "text": "What do you do?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fwxdqz7", "text": "Anyone know how rent for food trucks is usually handlers?", "replies": [{"id": "fwxi68a", "text": "You rent your spot monthly depending on the amount of nights you'll be in the lot. I don't know if it's like that everywhere, but that's what I've seen.", "replies": [{"id": "fwxk0k5", "text": "I know there is one of these in Portland OR.\n\nThe math on this may only work out if you intend on holding to develop further (same as parking lot), and I suspect the rents you will achieve from the trucks may in turn be less than your mortgage payments as this is a pretty low intensity use if the land. Literally any empty plot can be have this use without any delay or capital expenditure.\n\nIf you can make it work, wonderful.\n\nThings to be conscious of:\n1) Are there other parking lots nearby that can be converted to the same use? Watch out as you are successful others may copy.\n\n2) Is there sufficient foot traffic to have multiple food trucks on this lot (enough demand)\n\n3) price vs mortgage qualification on property income\n\n4) Are you going to have cash reserves for marketing? Both to attract trucks but also to promote the venue. To some degree the trucks will promote themselves through social media etc, but are you going to promote this further, ie 'food truck festivals' etc.\n\n5) rents as a baseline will be set at the going rate for either street parking or whatever parking permits/location permits your municipality charges if any. Ie why would a truck pay to be in your lot vs parked adjacent to it on the street. Tenants might pay more if your lot is able to attract excess traffic, or you may charge less to draw in tenants from the surrounding areas.\n\nWill you provide electrical hookups? This may be a way to attract business.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "fwyl733", "text": "Some cities don\u2019t even allow Food trucks weird. Yeah it\u2019s typically like that from the people I know aswell.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fwxnhoc", "text": "Buy an ATM machine and put it there.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fwy0pip", "text": "Educate yourself about taxes and incorporating, and visit other towns that have successful food truck parks.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fwyfte8", "text": "All those food trucks need a commercial kitchen somewhere to do some of the prep work, storage for economy of scale etc. You might want to look at making a food truck hub in the real sense that they can base themselves from there for all their needs.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fwzppdb", "text": "I looked into that a bit for another food truck business idea I had and a quickly changed my mind.  Tbh I found most food truck owners I talked to very difficult to deal with, under funded, and even hostile they might pay rent.  They all seemed like if its not a huge festival or something they wanted sales gaurantees or you to pay them to show up .\n\nI agree with the person who said to offer them kitchen space etc to be their home base.  That may be your best chance to do something different.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fx3cq4g", "text": "I don\u2019t believe food trucks pay very much in rent, since they\u2019re mobile, it\u2019s more of a draw/amenity to a certain area then it is a money-maker for a landowner.", "replies": [{"id": "fx3ert9", "text": "I did some calculations and I'd need to charge trucks 1000/month to be breaking even. It's not an unreasonable for such a busy street corner, but finding 15 street food trucks willing to pay and mostly stay in one spot might be a hard task.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fx4juzp", "text": "I'm not sure about literature, but I would recommend taking a look at some of the existing foodtruck areas and taking some notes. May be worth calling some of the owners/managers and asking about what they pay in rent, how the business does, etc. I'm not sure what your market is like, but if you can find some affordable ground with access to utilities, the biggest thing you're going to want is high foot traffic and VPD (vehicles per day) on the frontage road.\n\n&amp;#x200B;\n\nHere's a few examples to look at;\n\n [http://www.bleugarten.com/](http://www.bleugarten.com/) \n\n [https://www.9milegarden.com/](https://www.9milegarden.com/) \n\n [http://8stmarket.com/about/](http://8stmarket.com/about/)", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]