Previous Campgrounds
I have been going thru my travel logs and photo books of our campouts since we started camping. I went on the internet hoping to look at some of the photos of those campgrounds and was amazed at the ...
Forum Discussion
Around this part of Florida, we have had several campgrounds close in the last 10 years or so. I read a couple of years back, in the Orlando newspaper that something like 17 campgrounds within a 75 mile radius of Orlando had closed.
The main predator of both private RV campgrounds and marinas, are developers. Up until about a couple of years back, Florida law allowed cities and counties to set property taxes on the "potential" use, not what it was actually being used for. This was putting small marinas out of business as they were being taxed as though there were large condo developments on them instead. One was just north of here in Fort Pierce, where a big money developer from south of here bought a private family owned and run marina. Then he closed the marina to the public and built several high rise condo apartment buildings, with starting prices at $750,000 but you did get to rent one of the slips in the marina if you wanted. LOL The same thing has happened to campgrounds, just not as much since most were not in the most desirable locations, on the water, as were the marinas.
Campgrounds, in many cases, are like farms. If you don't inherit one, then it is very difficult to make enough profit to make the land payment each year and have anything remaining to live on. Campgrounds face the double whammy of having to compete with other private campgrounds as well as with the tax payer supported ones run by the government. The ones in the Florida Keys have this problem. The state campgrounds are in some of the best locations, well staffed and run, and only charge about 1/2 or less of what a private campground has to charge to stay in business and make a go of it.
Campground ownership has to be tough at best.
The main predator of both private RV campgrounds and marinas, are developers. Up until about a couple of years back, Florida law allowed cities and counties to set property taxes on the "potential" use, not what it was actually being used for. This was putting small marinas out of business as they were being taxed as though there were large condo developments on them instead. One was just north of here in Fort Pierce, where a big money developer from south of here bought a private family owned and run marina. Then he closed the marina to the public and built several high rise condo apartment buildings, with starting prices at $750,000 but you did get to rent one of the slips in the marina if you wanted. LOL The same thing has happened to campgrounds, just not as much since most were not in the most desirable locations, on the water, as were the marinas.
Campgrounds, in many cases, are like farms. If you don't inherit one, then it is very difficult to make enough profit to make the land payment each year and have anything remaining to live on. Campgrounds face the double whammy of having to compete with other private campgrounds as well as with the tax payer supported ones run by the government. The ones in the Florida Keys have this problem. The state campgrounds are in some of the best locations, well staffed and run, and only charge about 1/2 or less of what a private campground has to charge to stay in business and make a go of it.
Campground ownership has to be tough at best.
