[hackerspaces] [Eviction] Call for Support for les Hauts Lieux

[Nick Farr (hackerspaces.org)]

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 11:05, john arclight <arclight at gmail.com> wrote:
> So I'm certainly not one to discourage folks from investing and making
> money. But when I see the place next door to our space, for instance,
> slowly get destroyed by vandals it does make me wonder why someone
> would not want to protect their invetment by having even a minimal
> tenant.

I've often asked myself the same question, and generally got these
reasons from commercial landlords whose spaces I've tried to pursue
for temporary projects:

1) Commercial landlords are generally the least imaginative and most
risk-averse of all businesspeople.  They don't make money by working.
Commercial real estate is sort of like buying stocks, you just expect
it to be there, making you money.  Not having a tenant is kind of like
holding a stock that tanked after you bought it in the hopes it will
recover.  The stockholder waits for the stock to go up.  The
commercial landlord waits for the tenant that will just be there,
writing checks.  Several years is not a long time for a commercial
landlord to wait.

2) "Real" businesspeople always think best-case-scenario and will sign
a long-term lease without thinking about it, spend tons of money
improving the property by putting a bunch of money into renovations,
even if the business has a good chance of failing after several
months.  These "real" businesspeople also like to have a blank slate
to work with.  They are also generally turned off by existing tenants,
since they'd generally rather rent a blank, vacant space than one with
a month-to-month tenant that might not move out on time, trash the
place, etc.

3) The minimal tenant market is almost always "sketchy".  Even
"respectable" short-term tenants won't generally invest a lot in the
property and have operations that can tend to draw down values in the
neighborhood.  As well, "real" businesspeople will probably use the
honest short-term tenant as an excuse to pay less rent, which
commercial landlords want to avoid.

It all boils down to people not buying into the "real" business
hype/lies, and people being lazy/unimaginative.

-- 
Nick Farr / http://nickfarr.org / 8B13F204
Washington, DC, 20013-1208
P: +1 (707) 676-FARR
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