Speculative Bar Investment

[Adrienne Schwartz]

I have a bar and live music venue under contract in a smaller town outside of Houston. I threw in a low ball offer not expecting it to take and they took it. The previous owner died but he has redone the building completely in 2018 so all systems are pretty much brand new. I have had everything inspected and done a phase 2 and surprisingly everything looks great. On paper, if I can find a tenant, this could cash flow over 20%, however, since it is a specialized building and in a smaller town, finding the tenant has been challenging. My question is- if I get to closing in the next 40 days and still don't have a tenant, should I still go ahead and close and hope someone comes along? I have been cold calling, meeting with local tourism partners, music partners, etc. My fear is that I sit on an empty building and bleed cash for several years. I know this is the game we play but I want to get others' opinions. What would you do? We have already sunk about $20K in due diligence but sitting on an empty building would cost about $8K/ month which could be put to work elsewhere.