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Golden Mountain Park - Closing

Hate to hear about everyone backing out of buying GMP.

IMO - I would level all the structures across from the "bunk house". Fill in bumper boat pond. Put as many RV camping spots in as I could in that area. Get rid of all the smaller pavilions in need of work.

Didn't there used to be bathrooms in the building behind the circle track? I'd minimize the need for plumbing and keep it all down at the lower portion of the property. Maybe build a bathhouse/ bathrooms close to the bunk house.
 
Hate to hear about everyone backing out of buying GMP.

IMO - I would level all the structures across from the "bunk house". Fill in bumper boat pond. Put as many RV camping spots in as I could in that area. Get rid of all the smaller pavilions in need of work.

Didn't there used to be bathrooms in the building behind the circle track? I'd minimize the need for plumbing and keep it all down at the lower portion of the property. Maybe build a bathhouse/ bathrooms close to the bunk house.
If the owner thinks buildings have a value and all potential buyers think they represent an expense (demolition or improvement) it's no wonder they can't come to a deal.

It's unfortunate, but someone will likely pick it up for some other use besides an off-road park
 
With the exception of Windrock, most parks are very basic. Maybe a pavilion, restrooms with a few showers, and some RV hookups. Rent out the bunk house, install a few RV sites down below, and start collecting money. Improve the rest when money comes in. Roads, cleared parking areas, electrical, plumbing, etc. are all on site. That's a big expense already in place.

How bad was the bunk house, the conference center across from it, and the workshop/pavilion next to that? I don't see a need for anything else.

To be most profitable, it must appeal to the semi-stock/JK crowd. Clean bunk house on site appeals to families and that attracts large Jeep groups. So do hotels and restaurants within 10/15 minutes. Some basic trail maintenance, bypasses, and some man made obstacles are all they need. There is plenty of property to build new moderate trail systems. More bunk houses/cabins at a later date.

Big unknown is insurance cost. I know this has prevented parks from opening and caused some to close. Did anyone look into that cost? That and taxes I heard were $40K/year since it was no longer greenbelted. That will add up real quick.

$1,700/ac is damn cheap! I can't find anything close to that price. The 90ac parcel on the back side of the park is for sale for $3,000/ac and is bare/wooded land. Anything under $500K is a steal.
 
The dilapidated structures and infrastructure is what kills people trying to get loans and insurance (especially commerical) because it is all a liability.

It'd be hard to get an agriculture loan on it.

Cash is king on a property like this.
And ain't none of us got the cash apparently.

Kinda hard to sell a business plan with a ROI that is longer than the loan terms...
 
Big unknown is insurance cost. I know this has prevented parks from opening and caused some to close. Did anyone look into that cost? That and taxes I heard were $40K/year since it was no longer greenbelted. That will add up real quick.

Taxes for 2016, 2017 and 2018 were ~$7400 each year. Taxes wouldn't change too much being that most of the land is wooded. Insurance for the same 3 years was around $13k a year and I think that was only commercial type insurance to cover the structures. From what I could gather she did not carry insurance for off-road events. For the off-road insurance you can add another $8k/yr to the $13k for full coverage.
 
Hey Chuck ,did you get any kind of "rent roll" for any of the previous years? What kind of traffic did it have to keep it out of the red and into the black? I have never been there and just wondered what kind of traffic it generated on a regular basis. Is it a campground type atmosphere with hiking trails or is it strictly for off roader's and is there any other attractions to going there?
 
Hey Chuck ,did you get any kind of "rent roll" for any of the previous years? What kind of traffic did it have to keep it out of the red and into the black? I have never been there and just wondered what kind of traffic it generated on a regular basis. Is it a campground type atmosphere with hiking trails or is it strictly for off roader's and is there any other attractions to going there?

All I was able to get were the P&L sheets for 2016, 17 and 18 and all 3 years showed a significant loss and what information I was able to get sounds like the place always ran in the red. I never could get information that detailed the income, but most of it seemed to have been generated from them renting out the one huge pavilion for wedding venues. As other have said, the owner really never advertised other than through a website that was never kept up to date. She wouldn't let anyone have any kind of major off-road event and I think she really opened it up like 1 or 2 weekends a month. When I talked with the park manager he made it sound like that there was only about 20 to 40 rigs a month coming through gates (less than 500 a year).

Originally the property was set up as a campground. It has a 5 cabin bunk house, tent camping sites, 9 RV sites, one huge pavilion (can probably hold 200 people), 7 to 8 smaller pavilions, a playground for kids, some hiking trials a huge baseball field, basketball court and volleyball court. There's also an old 1/8" oval dirt track on the property. They used to run mini sprints on it but, like the rest of the property, the owners wouldn't doing any maintenance to it and the racers got tired of tearing up their cars and stopped coming.
 
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Taxes for 2016, 2017 and 2018 were ~$7400 each year. Taxes wouldn't change too much being that most of the land is wooded. Insurance for the same 3 years was around $13k a year and I think that was only commercial type insurance to cover the structures. From what I could gather she did not carry insurance for off-road events. For the off-road insurance you can add another $8k/yr to the $13k for full coverage.

Ok yea that's not terrible for taxes, I was misinformed. Do you know if the tax assessor classifies it for greenbelt designation or just vacant wooded land? Hopefully the designation would not change. That commercial insurance is high, probably just carry the off-road liability policy and maybe insure the bunk house. $15,000 for basic liability and taxes, think that could be covered with 1-2 big events.

Do you know if the "moon" section behind the grandstands could be leased? Would be great to incorporate that into the park like it was. She told me it was not included and there was no option for it.

For the last couple of years we would regularly have the park to ourselves even on the weekends. In 2017 she limited the park being open only one weekend a month. She wasn't the person for this type of business, held no events, nobody even knew about the park unless someone mentioned it during conversation or you attended Dixie Run.
 
Do you know if the "moon" section behind the grandstands could be leased? Would be great to incorporate that into the park like it was. She told me it was not included and there was no option for it.

When I talked with Jayne, the "Moon" section went to one of the deceased husbands kid.
 
...any kind of "rent roll" for any of the previous years? What kind of traffic did it have...

Regardless of the that data, it's not representative of what it should/could have been. I'm telling you, there was NO promotion and NO management.

Several folks around here hate to admit it but Dixie Run was it's biggest revenue and brought in more new customers each year than any other weekend.
 
Regardless of the that data, it's not representative of what it should/could have been. I'm telling you, there was NO promotion and NO management.

Several folks around here hate to admit it but Dixie Run was it's biggest revenue and brought in more new customers each year than any other weekend.



That is exactly what I was thinking was the problem and knew if it went into someone else's hands like Chuck's, it would probably be profitable in some years. Their website makes you believe it's a place to bring the kids and your fishing pole and have a Brady Bunch weekend, but in reality probably more like an Adam's family reunion. :dunno:
 
I'd say everything is do dang grown up at this point. But I'd love to get ahold of the owner and bribe her into one more open weekend. I've got a list of spots I want to hit now that I've got tons. And by the looks of it, it won't reopen.

On a different note, the buyers that I've been talking to on FB have officially backed out, which we knew, but are now looking at three other locations. One of which being Mayhem. The other two, they won't say.
 
That is exactly what I was thinking was the problem and knew if it went into someone else's hands like Chuck's, it would probably be profitable in some years. Their website makes you believe it's a place to bring the kids and your fishing pole and have a Brady Bunch weekend, but in reality probably more like an Adam's family reunion. :dunno:
Not at all, it was a very nice place always carried the fishing poles and kids when we went for the wknd
 
I agree.. loyal to GMP.. Love the park.. And cool place to bring a fishing pole.. Everything is falling down.. I would go more than in the past. Needs promotion !! Needs camping ! Needs a new owner ! Per Southern needs easy trails..
 
Mayham is only towards the more extreme crawling type of groups I'm local I live 5 mins away from there I actually went riding there 2 weeks ago up the creek bed an Marvin has been cutting trees around the property. It's not big enough to cut trails to actually ride up but is a killer spot to see what you an your rig is made from all of the old trails are still there as we usually get a small ride up 2 times a year an ride the place some are washed out pretty bad it has growed up some but has potential, they use to be a lot of riding on benlomand which is what we call that area but recently a lot of the land owners have put signs up an gates an cut trees down to keep people of their land
 
Mayham is only towards the more extreme crawling type of groups I'm local I live 5 mins away from there I actually went riding there 2 weeks ago up the creek bed an Marvin has been cutting trees around the property. It's not big enough to cut trails to actually ride up but is a killer spot to see what you an your rig is made from all of the old trails are still there as we usually get a small ride up 2 times a year an ride the place some are washed out pretty bad it has growed up some but has potential, they use to be a lot of riding on benlomand which is what we call that area but recently a lot of the land owners have put signs up an gates an cut trees down to keep people of their land

I rode Mayhem one time, a few years ago, with Bill McClister. It was awesome. The only complaint I had was, every trail coming back down, would almost get you killed, LOL!
 

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