I live in a small town (sub-3,000) and my company is growing quickly. I’ve gone from two offices, one in my town and one an even smaller town an hour away, to nearly 20 offices in 5 states over the last four years. My central office is still in the first small town. I’m centralizing my bookkeeping here and plan to do the same with at least two other departments. I know I’m creating problems for myself with recruitment, but for a town with empty storefronts downtown and that went from 6,000 people down to 3,000 in the last 40 years, I want to do my part to support our economy. My headquarters now employs 8 and I’m planning to hire another four this year and recently obtained financing to start a new hub that will create another 8-12 jobs. The building I own in town is out of date and too small regardless. Bringing us to my current problem. There are a lot of vacant run down units in town. Some are in terrible condition and should probably be torn down. But some are great. About 10 years ago the state pulled four departments out of our town back to the Capitol to save money leaving a few really nice newish buildings vacant. A couple good old boys in town snapped them up cheap (sub-$200k), and they have been vacant for the better part of the decade, although well maintained. They are asking insane lease rates for the nice spaces and jerking around me and other potential new businesses. These guys are well off, one is retired to Florida and the other owns the second largest business in town, a lumber mill. They don’t need the money. I called the broker for the owner of one space and she quoted me $1750/mo over the phone. When I got there she told me the rate was actually $2,500. I balked and looked elsewhere, but finding nothing better ultimately went back to her. Now he wants $3,000. I asked around and I’m not the first person he’s done this to. At least two other businesspeople tried to lease the space only to be jerked around. Both of those businesses are now thriving in a nearby town about 30 minutes away. I called the owner of another building, and he’s just not returning my calls. Again, I’m not the first that has tried to lease the space. A couple years ago I expressed interest in the building and he gave me a tour, it was for sale and the online listing asked $650k. When I met him in person he said he wanted $850k. He bought the place for around $200k. I’ve heard people say before that these guys don’t want anyone else in town to challenge them or do too well. They like to think of themselves as the richest guys in town (which is bs, we’re in Montana, there’s a private club with a top 100 world wide golf course in county owned by a guy who owns pro sports teams). But they are treated like they are by a lot of the multi generation families. I’m getting discouraged and looking to take my company elsewhere. Is it worth the hassle?
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