Invest in commercial restaurant space?

[Jessica Wood]

Hello! We own 11 doors, 3 of which are Airbnb's and we live in a resort town. So far I've only invested in Multifamily but we've learned of a property for sale for roughly 430k that is currently built out as a restaurant on the main floor but the upstairs is built out as a condo but without kitchen or shower (would require 40k to make it airbnb worthy.). The current tenants pay $2600/month Plus all utilities on a contract and they want out. We think we could get $3000/month on a NNN lease for the restaurant area (huge clean kitchen) and $300/night for the airbnb which would be booked VERY often (highly desirable location) and the space is amazing with a lake view.

What am I not thinking about besides restaurant vacancy and the fact that I have zero experience owning or even looking at a restaurant to determine what makes it “good”? It’s very clean.

[Bob Langworthy]

Don't do this deal, I know a guy in Maine who may be interested....

Kidding.

This sounds great. If I were in your position I would:

1) Try to talk at length with the current tenant to learn more about the industry and what problems they have encountered. 

2) Confirm that $3000/month is reasonable. You may have to do some work to find out if that's a solid number, but it would be worth it.

3) Regarding the AirBNB, is the noise from the restaurant going to be a deterrent? 

4) Be careful with who you let in as a restaurant tenant. As @Ronald Rohde mentioned, turnover is high in the restaurant industry.

I like that you have AirBNB experience, that greatly mitigates the risk of purchasing the building. If you hadn't done either restaurant or AirBNB, I'd be a little nervous. 

Hope this helps,