RIP: Capstone Comics in Austin

[NewWorldOrder]

Unfortunately, a new location is not in the cards for Capstone. The owner(John), does not want to go through another move and is thrown the towel in. Sad day in Austin for LCS, as it was the last of the places that offered discounts on multiple subs.

 

Well that decision is on him then obviously.

 

My LCS I grew up with in the Philly suburbs has moved 5 times over the years.

 

He has kept adapting and is doing very well.

[comicwiz]

What makes you say the landlord is greedy?

 

Most of the time, it's chalked up to this.

 

I know one of my clients had a thriving business in a store operating out of a reasonably busy mall. Their lease came up for renewal, and the landlord was demanding they spend low six figures to do renovations to the space, which to be brutally honest, was not necessary. The client kept the place very clean, and aesthetically, the space did not need to be touched. There were no pending work orders and/or the space didn't need to be worked on to meet code, which is what I was suggesting my client look into as they didn't want to inherit a situation where the burden was being offloaded on them when it was the landlords responsibility.

 

From my perspective, the landlord saw how well they were doing, and they either were trying to take advantage of them, or it was a lame attempt to try to dissuade them from renewing. Their rent was also going to rise to twice the amount, and they wanted them to be locked into a 10 year lease commitment.

 

Needless to say, they didn't take the bait and moved.

 

The last time I was there, the only thing that I could see the new tenants put into the place was maybe a fresh coat of paint, and the landlord hasn't had a tenant since that stayed more than 6 months, so I guess they got what they deserved.

[RockMyAmadeus]

What makes you say the landlord is greedy?

 

Most of the time, it's chalked up to this.

 

 

Raising prices because of higher demand isn't "greedy."

 

Greed is you thinking that someone gets something that you think they don't deserve...in this case, higher rent.

 

But hey, Che Guevara didn't think he was greedy, either....

 

 

I know one of my clients had a thriving business in a store operating out of a reasonably busy mall. Their lease came up for renewal, and the landlord was demanding they spend low six figures to do renovations to the space, which to be brutally honest, was not necessary. The client kept the place very clean, and aesthetically, the space did not need to be touched. There were no pending work orders and/or the space didn't need to be worked on to meet code, which is what I was suggesting my client look into as they didn't want to inherit a situation where the burden was being offloaded on them when it was the landlords responsibility.

 

From my perspective, the landlord saw how well they were doing, and they either were trying to take advantage of them, or it was a lame attempt to try to dissuade them from renewing. Their rent was also going to rise to twice the amount, and they wanted them to be locked into a 10 year lease commitment.

 

Needless to say, they didn't take the bait and moved.

 

The last time I was there, the only thing that I could see the new tenants put into the place was maybe a fresh coat of paint, and the landlord hasn't had a tenant since that stayed more than 6 months, so I guess they got what they deserved.

 

 

Whaddaya know? The free market, without regulatory intereference, actually worked! Whoda thunk it??

 

[lou_fine]

Happened to a LCS here in Edmonton, they had a space in the West Edmonton Mall and the landlord didn't renew the lease and chose ot renew with someone else. The cost for the space went up significantly and the LCS owner couldn't afford to renew. He was rather choked up about it.

 

 

What's the rental cost for a retail store front in the West Edm Mall?

 

I imagine it must be well over $20K a month which translates into a lot of books that have to be sold just to cover the monthly rent alone, even before your other costs come into play.

[boomtown]

Capstone Comics auctioned off all the unsold inventory last week, looks like over 400,000 comics. I was looking over the realized prices & they did really well. Shocking what people will bid on books with small pics, sight unseen.

 

http://atxauctions.hibid.com/auctions/past/