Ok this is fairly theoretical at the moment. It wont be happening for a while even if I go ahead with the idea but I am just gauging interest and opinions from people to see if it will sink or swim.
Long and short of it is I will have a unit to rent, 2 miles from the city centre, on a fairly grotty estate to run a consumer buisness from but fine for industrial and hobby use (almost a bonus as no one really cares what you get up to!) Unit is ~2000sqft, 6m wide and 30m long but 15m of that would probably be on a (500kg per sq m) mezzanine level so not good for cars, just for lightweight machines and storage etc. It's fairly secure due to being hemmed into a block of other units and only having one point of access.. Only other sticking point is there being a 2ft step in the floor about 6m inside the front door. Currently this has a bit of a ramp up so you could get cars up it and into the rest of the unit but it's not quite ideal for moving cars in and out frequently and low cars may struggle without man handling.
Now I know it's far from an ideal unit for car work but I also know how hard it is to find units in the west mids so i want to do as much as I can to make it avalible to us lot before perusing other ways to let it out.
I'm flexible on lease terms, there is free water supply and drainage, metered 3 phase electric and gas you would have to take liability for. It all qualifies for small rates relief so no rates to pay for the foreseeable.
Questions would really be around how much people would pay for such a unit? Bearing in mind it could be a 8-10k per annum on the open market maybe more. Id imagine that puts it out of reach of most hobbyists? I'm fine with people subletting as some kind of share but I don't want to get involved in the politics of that. Uless I can physically split the space I want to let to one person who takes on the liabilities and it's down to them to police any sharing.
Would splitting it down the middle to make a 3m wide unit be a totally dumb idea or would people maybe go for that if it was in the £300-400 a month range?
Would the stepped entrance be a real ball ache for people or are most people using units for project cars that barely move in years rather than cars that go out in the wild every few weeks? (Bare in mind there is room for atleast 1 car on easily accessible 'ground level'
Any other thoughts?
Long and short of it is I will have a unit to rent, 2 miles from the city centre, on a fairly grotty estate to run a consumer buisness from but fine for industrial and hobby use (almost a bonus as no one really cares what you get up to!) Unit is ~2000sqft, 6m wide and 30m long but 15m of that would probably be on a (500kg per sq m) mezzanine level so not good for cars, just for lightweight machines and storage etc. It's fairly secure due to being hemmed into a block of other units and only having one point of access.. Only other sticking point is there being a 2ft step in the floor about 6m inside the front door. Currently this has a bit of a ramp up so you could get cars up it and into the rest of the unit but it's not quite ideal for moving cars in and out frequently and low cars may struggle without man handling.
Now I know it's far from an ideal unit for car work but I also know how hard it is to find units in the west mids so i want to do as much as I can to make it avalible to us lot before perusing other ways to let it out.
I'm flexible on lease terms, there is free water supply and drainage, metered 3 phase electric and gas you would have to take liability for. It all qualifies for small rates relief so no rates to pay for the foreseeable.
Questions would really be around how much people would pay for such a unit? Bearing in mind it could be a 8-10k per annum on the open market maybe more. Id imagine that puts it out of reach of most hobbyists? I'm fine with people subletting as some kind of share but I don't want to get involved in the politics of that. Uless I can physically split the space I want to let to one person who takes on the liabilities and it's down to them to police any sharing.
Would splitting it down the middle to make a 3m wide unit be a totally dumb idea or would people maybe go for that if it was in the £300-400 a month range?
Would the stepped entrance be a real ball ache for people or are most people using units for project cars that barely move in years rather than cars that go out in the wild every few weeks? (Bare in mind there is room for atleast 1 car on easily accessible 'ground level'
Any other thoughts?
