Our model railroading club has come into a bit of a bind recently and I am wondering if anyone here would have some advice. We were renting the space that we are building the layout in from a hobby shop who was renting his space from the owner of the building. Since then, the hobby shop went bankrupt and the owner of the building has not shown any interest in negotiating a new lease with us directly. We have 2 years and thousands of dollars invested in this. Aside from cutting everything up and liquidating our club does anyone have any suggestions?
If we do have to cut up the layout and leave does anyone know where one might look to find rental property for a not-for-profit railroad club?
I guess our club is very fortunate in that we are located in the Railroad Museum here. All of our members not only belong to the club but volunteer time to the museum. We pay only annual dues for membership but no rent. The building we are in was donated to us by the Santa Fe Railroad years ago so we own the property. You might check with a railroad there about a vacant building or even someone that owns a large real estate firm that specializes in commercial property. They may have one somwhere that they would rent to you for a small fee or free. I might even suggest that you talk to your local newspaper and see if they will run a story about your problem. You never know what might pop up to help you out.
Man, I am sorry to hear what happened. Unless you score a major miracle with the owner, sounds like your are out of luck. I do have a couple of ideas though… I have no idea if they will help since I dont know your area, but I had to try. I feel bad for your loss…That has to suck.
Libraries ,museums , maybe even hospital. (In return, could provide a great place for the patients to come and watch) Also, try and find corporations or management companies of industrial real estate that might have lots of properties. You might be able get them to donate an old business suite or small warehouse which would give them a good tax break for them, works better off they have a few open or a couple that hard to lease.
Lastly, try and find a large business park somewhere and look into prices for a business park suite. Get enough members who dont mind paying monthly dues, might be able to “buy” your own place.
All shots in the dark but hope it helps. best of luck to you.
Here are a couple of more tips, which may or may not be useful.
I work with a local non-profit that started up in late 2000. We found some old storefront space that was a bit run-down, but perfectly adequate for the meeting and office uses we planned on putting it to. You can often find somewhat distressed properties in the downtowns of small towns all over the Midwest. I imagine Wisconsin is not much different than Illinois. Sometimes, the rent can be quite reasonable for a quite large space. Of course, consider everything else, especially utilities and code issues, before you commit.
One thing to also consider is to be on the lookout for old storefronts and other properties being used as political campaign quarters leading up to November’s election. You’ll find most of these properties vacant again soon after the election and landlords looking to rent them out. Such temporary uses as this are also indicative of the property being empty and on the market for awhile, another incentive to make an affordable deal. The reason I know this is that is how we came across the rental I just mentioned.
[;)]
This next one may sound like a longshot, but it happened, FWIW. Our organization started saving for a permanent home right from the start. We considered a deal with our landlord at the rental mentioned above, but could never come to a good enough deal. So renting to own is another option sometimes, but be sure that you make no commitments you can’t back out of if you plan on putting off such a decision until the future.
In our case, we ended up buying another building, the old downtown post office building here. It had been in use for mailing and otehr service window ops, but mostly empty, after they moved the backend sorting to a modern facility on the edge of town back in 1999. Many old post offices in medium size cities are in the same situation. We ended up negotiating a deal with the PO to buy their old building, leave the remaining PO service
Folks, this is a really serious problem for any MRR club and numerous stories of “losing their lease,” or getting thrown out of their space for whatever reason have surfaced over the years. I really feel for you guys and unfortunately do not have any suggestions beyond the ones already offered. Perhaps some suggestions could be offered for other clubs to prevent this problem — if in fact there is any way short of the club’s owning its own building — to prevent it
Try your County Fair Board.They may have a building they will rent you with a request that you are open during the County Fair.
I know of 2 clubs located at fair grounds and as long as they are open during the fair they have a permanent “home”.
This isn’t as bad as it sounds…They display their layout during the fair and expose hundreds if not thousands to the hobby…They have a place for their yearly train shows as well.
BTW…Both clubs are modular in case of a move but,their layouts is setup in a permanent fashion.One is the standard 3 track modular layout design with yard while the other uses a double track main line with 2 yards for prototypical operation.
Yeah, that does kind of suck. Our club had once been promised a 40,000 S.F. building once, along with about $250,000 for renovations (we had ties with the local museum), which was adjacent to the local RR “museum”, but due to political interference from certain other “interests” in town that was killed. Needless to say we have absolutely no kind words to speak of this other group (no RR interest of any kind), the management of that group would prefer to haul off the “scrap metal” we called our local train exhibit. We had thought of Boy scouts, to see if they had some space. We ended up moving the layout to an old RR depot (now a museum/meeting hall) in another town, the local hobby shop ended up closing down due to owner’s health, and the local club kind of just went their separate ways.
You could always try talking to the city council, or the county commisioners, or maybe even a state agency, to see if they have a former government building of some kind you could use. If your club has obtained their non-profit status from the IRS, you may even get the city/county to donate it or sell it dirt cheap. Where I live, the county has some former offices/currently storage building they were considering swapping to the city in exchange for…something, I forget what. Also, if your club has IRS non-profit status, you can also solicit donations from outside parties, individual, business and public, and check into grant money.
Our club used to have a place above an “old gentlemen’s club of evening entertainment”. Meetings were popular (ahem) until the city demolished the building.
We worked out a deal with the city to rent an empty municipal building for $1 per year. We’ve been there for 10 years with no indication the city will boot us out any time soon.
You might want to invite some government people to an open house (if it’s not too late) and ask for assistance. Seeing toy trains tends to bring out the best…even in politicians We now have several key local government hombres as members…which doesn’t hurt.
We recently received our Not-For-Profit 501(c)3 status and within weeks, it seems doors of opportunity are opening with grant opportunities and generous benefactors interested in promotional gain.
You have to let local people know about your problem and ask for help. There are many good suggestions in the responses above. Perhaps some of them will be to your benefit. Good luck.
PS…if you must dismantle your layout, be certain to go overboard labeling sections at their division points and take lots of photos of everything before you begin your first cut. Scenery is always the easiest to cut and repair. Avoid cutting under-the-table braces if at all possible. Did I say to label everything on either side of the cut before cutting?? Very helpful when reassembling.
Problem with non- profit clubs, is renting space from property-taxed owners.
Space is valuable for storage, renovation, or commercial purposes,: therefor represents potenential income/expense to the owner. Most clubs rent their space - and are periodially forced to move. Portland’s Columbia Gorge club bought a lot, built their own building, and asses members to cover taxes, heat, electricity, building codes, and for building maitainance not done by membership. That includes cleaning toilets.
Everyone with space wants to rent it. Difference is price (which goes up) and legnth of lease. Even old RRbuildings are razed for safety reasons and to take off the tax rolls. Can you offer enough income to offset the liability? One has ‘to pay for their fun, it’s a way of life.’.
The Milwaukie Model RR Engineers Club (Now in Walthers’ basement, was previously renting in a Hospital basement, and before that, met in each other’s homes.
That has been replaced by many ‘Modular’ clubs, today. Your 4X8 becomes 2 - 2x8’s to find a new home.
David Barrow’s 'Domino’s are a 1.5’X4’ adaptations, ganged together, using wireless RF with DCC, and configured to fit into your space. Best of all it can fit through doorways and be re-configured for future locations.
Be very careful with that 501(c)3 status. If your membership is open to anyone who wishes to join (and applicants don’t have to be “approved” for membership by the club!), you will be able to accept donations from the public. If, however, you have limitations on your membership AND/OR your club “votes” on whether or not to accept a member, you may NOT accept funds from the public!
This is a touchy area. Best advice is to get legal help form a local attorney who KNOWS about such things. Do not rely on the IRS to provide a definitive answer! (Past experience speaking!)
We now have several key local government hombres as members…which doesn’t hurt.