buying campground
I am looking to buy a campground that has closed. Having a hard time finding them. Any suggestions?
Forum Discussion
You might look into Big Chief RV Park north of Coffeyville, Kansas. I think it is still open, but is a good candidate for being closed soon, when Amazon shuts down the distribution center whose workers the park now serves.
This one is just a RV park for seasonal long term residents, a long way from being a multi-use destination campground (like a KOA or Yogi Bear) but seasonal workers parks are a bigger business than recreational destinations in this part of Kansas.
Coffeyville has at least two special events, the late rodeo spilling over into the surrounding area and filling parks until the Amazon seasonals started coming in.
The adjacent Amazon property (likely to be dumped back on the city-county as industrial park) has potential to be developed into a destination. It is big enough for something like an indoor water park; these have become pretty successful in other parts of the country, and the nearest is more than three hours away in Kansas City. If it were in Oklahoma one of the tribes might figure out how to make it a casino, but Kansas has been fighting hard against that sort of property conversion and restricts casinos to actual reservations.
I've known two generations of ownership at three of the RV resorts I frequently use. Successful new owners have included non-operating owners of multiple RV properties, and early retirement middle managers and previously successful entrepreneurs who have sold their previous business and were looking for something "more relaxing" or "low pressure." But in all these cases, they were buying a thriving business with a good clientele (paying for that too, of course) and coming in with enough money to make significant improvements looking toward becoming profitable in 3-5 years.
If the park or campground is closed, you do need to understand why. If it is just a RV park, sometimes it has just been bypassed (like a motel on the old highway) and you need to make it attractive enough draw people off the new highway. If it is a campground, you need to figure out what went wrong with the camping experience, try to bring that back. Location near highways and junctions is less important for campgrounds, people looking for that experience also like to get away from highway noise.
This one is just a RV park for seasonal long term residents, a long way from being a multi-use destination campground (like a KOA or Yogi Bear) but seasonal workers parks are a bigger business than recreational destinations in this part of Kansas.
Coffeyville has at least two special events, the late rodeo spilling over into the surrounding area and filling parks until the Amazon seasonals started coming in.
The adjacent Amazon property (likely to be dumped back on the city-county as industrial park) has potential to be developed into a destination. It is big enough for something like an indoor water park; these have become pretty successful in other parts of the country, and the nearest is more than three hours away in Kansas City. If it were in Oklahoma one of the tribes might figure out how to make it a casino, but Kansas has been fighting hard against that sort of property conversion and restricts casinos to actual reservations.
I've known two generations of ownership at three of the RV resorts I frequently use. Successful new owners have included non-operating owners of multiple RV properties, and early retirement middle managers and previously successful entrepreneurs who have sold their previous business and were looking for something "more relaxing" or "low pressure." But in all these cases, they were buying a thriving business with a good clientele (paying for that too, of course) and coming in with enough money to make significant improvements looking toward becoming profitable in 3-5 years.
If the park or campground is closed, you do need to understand why. If it is just a RV park, sometimes it has just been bypassed (like a motel on the old highway) and you need to make it attractive enough draw people off the new highway. If it is a campground, you need to figure out what went wrong with the camping experience, try to bring that back. Location near highways and junctions is less important for campgrounds, people looking for that experience also like to get away from highway noise.
