In the “Episode” posts I’ll try and recount the steps I took toward opening a Box. Considering I haven’t officially opened yet it’ll be an ongoing process.

After discovering that there were a plethora of unusable locations in the DC area, I learned one of the fundamental rules of business: if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.  I had looked around a bunch of areas for the “keys” Brian had told me about (dense young urban professionals no kids disposable income).  After doing as much research Google and walking around would allow, I had basically decided to either wait on my real estate guy to find me a spot (bad idea) or give up entirely (worse idea). Then, a friend of mine told me about a spot he had seen that might work if it weren’t about to be re-developed.  Can’t hurt to look, right?

We kind of meandered around the area looking at different properties that were for lease. In DC, there are always a lot of spaces to lease.  99% of which are office space, but regardless, there are still a lot of spaces.  When we finally came to find the spot he was talking about, I practically messed my pants.  Old auto garage.  High ceilings.  Roll up door.  No neighbors.  Up and coming neighborhood.  Surrounded by condos. Jackpot!

Here was the one problem… it wasn’t for lease per se.  It had a sign on it announcing the development company and that “Things Were About To Change!” (seriously…that was the logo for the development company).  Unfortunately, the phone number was disconnected.  Upon visiting the development company’s website, it announced that “The Lofts” should break ground in August 2007!!!  So needless to say they were a bit behind the times.  Looks like the recession had hit them pretty hard.  The good news of course being that “The Lofts” probably weren’t going in any time soon, the bad news being that it’s tough to get in touch with a company that doesn’t even answer it’s phone.

That’s when I decided that if my realtor can’t find me a spot, he should at least be able to find the guy who owned this building.  If only I knew that you could find any owner by getting the tax bill on the property which again is public.  Instead it took my realtor about 2 months for information I later found out takes all of about 20 minutes. He did get in touch with him… eventually.  Then it was a matter of working out a deal.