Looks like I sold my building, the pain is about to begin...

Got a call from my realtor that there is an offer on my 36,000 sq ft old Chrysler-Plymouth dealership building that is absolutely full to the brim with Mopar parts and cars. It will be a painful winter watching all that I have acquired over the years heading out the doors, but it needs to be done. Now starts the task of figuring out what I want to keep. I have an auction company waiting to go through everything, but I am not sure that is the best way to do it since they usually get things sold pennies on the dollar. It is surely the quick way to do things, but the negotiation has not yet started on how long I have before the new owner wants possession...

How long have you had that?

Seems to have filled up quite quickly

I feel for you man! Its taken me 2 years to sort out the stuff that was in my two, two car garages. I wouldn't want to have to make the decision on most of the stuff that you had in there.

Guess that means there won't be a spring swap meet in 2022? Bummer!

Maybe there will be a huge liquidation sale? Gene

Hi Rhino , On One hand I wish you a Congratulations ! On the other hand , a OUCH , Oh my gosh ! What a HUGE building to empty ! Ronnie

... that sounds like an epic task, so ...

... Congratulations and Condolences !!

Looks like a very cool building.
- Art

Time to move on with my life, just can't stand another year in Illinoise. The problem is do I move to Tennessee or Florida, I have opportunities in each state...

Florida is an OK place to visit , but I dont think I would want to live there. if I did I think it would have to be the north eastern portion.
Tenn would be a maybe as long as it was southern portion.


In regards to your impending move,,,,,,I dont envy you. in any way thats for sure
I helped a guy move a similar size bldg about 25 years ago, also full of cars and parts.
We had maybe a dozen people and it still took us several weekends and god only knows how many trips

Good luck wherever you go Rhino!

Hope wherever you land Rhino you find it to be a perfect match!
I remember when you first stepped in to that building. I thought the power bills would eventually be too painful to tolerate.
Hope the auction results ease the pain of leaving - It's a good time to be selling real estate (not a great time to be buying however) - Keep us updated on your landing zone once you figure it out

My cousin just moved back to Tennessee from Florida after many years there. He said Florida was horrible now with all the people moving there.

Best of luck with the sale & move, Rhino.
If I was going to move out of Georgia, Tennessee would be the place. As said, Florida is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't even consider living there.


Tim

Hey HAY .... mop on da RAG !

What’s your problemO with Paradise?

this the building you bought just recently after your fire? seems had 2 floors with a ramp up to the top floor?

Are you going to offer stuff for sale prior to an auction company getting their hands on everything? What kind of stuff do you have?

That be the place.

Rhino, Don't blame you one bit for wanting to get out of IL. Given a choice between FL and TN, TN would be it for me, FA is too hot during the summer, but then TN might not be much better.

I can feel your pain, my thinking, do like a band aid, just be quick about it, its all just stuff anyway.
Curious about the building, what year was that built? Its got a touch of art deco?
Are new owners going to use it, or tear it down?
With all the Floridians moving to Tenn, I surprised they haven't yet built a wall.

Yep

1921 it was built to be a Dodge Brothers dealership but never opened as that, don't know much between then and 1944 when it became a DeSoto dealership then Plymouth and Chrysler until 2009 when a certain President decided there was no room to let dealers for Chrysler make money anymore...

Move all the parts to a former limestone or underground coal mine in retirement Kentucky, or if you prefer, a cave.
The “Karst Geology” area around Bowling Green/Mammoth Cave National Park is riddled with underground space.

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/kentucky/underground-places-ky/

Remember what happened at the Corvette museum?

Even if you do not seek out a cave, the cave may come to you.

Depends on weather you prefer Hurricanes or Tornados.....buddy of mine lives in Florida...it gets so humid there he works on his car at 3am.

Yep, I am a tornado kinda guy, they have small paths and are gone in an instant, grew up in northern Indiana and got knocked down by one the day before my birthday in the mid 70's that killed a couple of people in Monticello, IN. I hate humidity also, that is why I still live up nort. I hear TN can be bad with humidity also, but shorter span.

I heard the hole opened up and swallowed the Vette museum because the plant used to be a Chrysler AirTemp facility before GM bought it and moved manufacturing there, just normal retribution, hit them where it hurts the most!

Wow, maybe we should started a Moparts go fund site to save it, thats a very historic automobile building, especially for this crowd IMO, I hope it gets saved intact, and not a new location for a Wawa?

My recollection of the dealer trimming in the 08 recession is different, I thought its was an underhanded scam by corporate to prop up their favorite dealers, I never understood how it was more profitable for Corporate by reducing number of independent franchises, although it was popular to blame everything on the person in charge at the time.

The odd thing is every single franchise closed was Republican owned except one. Corporate had nothing to do with it as I recall, it was Obama's team that made the decisions .

Me thimks ole JimBo is secretly a BILLIONAIRE !

It's no secret. He's got a BILLION parts...

I was in high school at Culver Indiana when the “super outbreak” of tornados occurred.
I was super bored and suggested that all us military cadets go out and help people clean up.
The school had once before sent out students to help during floods.

To my surprise the ex-general head of the school said yes,
cancelled classes,
and us ROTC students loaded up in buses and 2.5 Ton dual fuel military trucks and went up to pile up trash.

Way more memory making then sitting in class.

I have a book about the super outbreak in Kentucky.

Too hot, too humid (although Georgia is a close second some times), too many hurricanes, too many Yankees , etc. Take your pick.
Actually lived in Orlando for 6 mos. back in '69. Dad had gotten a job offer and moved us down there. After 6 mos. we moved back to Georgia as he couldn't make the money down there he made up here. Probably would have been a different story say, 10 yrs. later after Orlando had the big building boom after Disney got going.
I dearly love the N. Ga.-Tennessee-N. Carolina mountains (matter of fact we just got back from a weekend up there). Wifey and I retired to the foothills in N. Ga. back in '12 but moved back to metro Atlanta in '14 when the grandkids started making an appearance. We were talking how much we missed living up there but didn't think we would move back at our age.
Don't take it personal, Doc. We have some good friends in Florida. Just not my kinda place.


Tim

EACH to their own TimBo !

Fur sure Florida can have some brutal humidity.... but so can GA and TN and even MA !

But that weather UP THERE takes A DIVE ....here it gets perfect for SEVEN MONTHS now

I need to move my 1700 square feet of shop space into my new shop which is almost done. Fraction of yours and I'm shaking in my boots.........

I seriously doubt that conclusion, unfortunately in today's climate, accuracy is no longer a virtue, and I am not directing that you as so much as maybe your source.
If so, it is IMO highly questionable and likely illegal. Im sticking to my earlier stated suspicion, corporate wanted to favor select dealers with greater market share.

Sometimes I look at the houses/properties in Tennessee just for fun. Real estate there is much more reasonable than it is where I live. Obviously you'd want to do your homework for quality of life of any area but seems like a great bang for your buck.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/findahomeintennessee/

Good luck with the sale. That sure was a cool building.

Dave

Don't envy you right now Jim.

The bankruptcy was such a raw deal for so many loyal dealers that had been in business forever. Chrysler used it as an excuse to get rid of a lot of smaller dealers. Most leaned right because they were mostly small town dealers and those areas generally lean that way.

I personally spoke with several dealers that got the axe and they had a similar suspicions. One has been in business much longer (IIRC '70's ish), owned the property outright and was a more profitable store that two others in his same area of ft lauderdale.

Congratulations Rhinodart and Gods speed in whatever you choose.
As far as I'm concerned, Florida is the best choice if you can swing enough $ and many would gladly welcome you here The high humidity does take some getting used to and is NOT exclusive to Florida by any means. I remember my Napa AutoCare Center shop in the Atlanta area would not only get hotter than any Florida day, sometimes over 100*, it would get just as humid. Some days wouldn't have even a slight breeze whatsoever! Dead still heat and humidity that I felt was prepping me for what hell's reception lobby would feel like.
Copper

Congrats on your sale. Hopefully the funds will be enough for you to continue your hobby and make the golden years into platinum one.

If you have any questions about large sales and information, feel free to pm me. I have done several large sales, estate sales and auction liquidations in the last few years and can give you some insight on selling, auction house contract, private sales and other such stuff.
And

If you decide to move to Florida, Mid Florida up to North Florida is the place to be. The property and county taxes in South Florida are rediculously high. Lots of car related events and swap meets from mid Florida all the way to North Florida.
Not as much in South Florida. I live in South Florida and looking to make a move up mid to North Florida area in a couple years.