CHARMING MAINE RESTAURANT W/APARTMENT AND STOREFRONT Running Nonstop since the 1940s! Another price drop!! Start Price USD 69,000.00 Current Price USD 69,000.00 Time Left 53 days 19 hours 40 minutes Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Monday, December 01, 2008 End Time Sunday, March 01, 2009 Location Van Buren, Maine See more about 'CHARMING MAINE RESTAURANT W/APARTMENT AND STOREFRONT' Description   The real estate and credit market is in rough shape, so here is an opportunity to take advantage of the situation and pick up a terrific property at a rock bottom price. We are just waiting for the right folks to show up!  This is the ideal family business.  No commute.  Live upstairs and work downstairs.If you’ve always dreamed of owning and operating your own restaurant and maybe getting away from the harshness of city life, but never thought that you would be able to afford the start up, here is an opportunity to purchase a successfully operating restaurant including the building, a huge spacious apartment, the land it sits on and a storefront for an extremely reasonable price.    You may wonder why we offer it at such a low price.  The first reason is that we purchased it at a very reasonable price since it needed some improvements on the building and the business.  The second reason is that we are located in a very far northern Maine town, sitting on the Canadian border where there simply never was the big real estate boom that was found in other parts of the country.    About the restaurant:  This restaurant has been running for over 60+ years nonstop.  3 and 4 generations are still coming in for breakfast! It is currently only open only 5 days a week serving breakfast and lunch, 6am-1pm.  The restaurant is minimally staffed with me as cook, my husband helping in the restaurant, shopping, doing the books and various other duties, one full time waitress and some occasional help in the kitchen.  The town would love to have another option for dinner and this place would do well if you wanted to add that.  We are also closed on Sundays and Monday and the local folks would love it if it were open on those days.  The sale will include all of the equipment and furnishings of the restaurant, except my personal wall art and decorations which I will be taking.  The menu is kept fairly simple with breakfasts of egg dishes, meats, omelets, French toast and pancakes.  There are always 2 lunch specials, usually prepped in the morning and held on a steam table for a fast lunch service.  About 95% of the customers order the lunch special so it serves quickly and there is not a lot of fussy made to order items to do.  We don’t do any deep fried dishes here (unusual but it works).  Lunch is always an old fashioned roast beef special and a second entrée of spaghetti, roast turkey, baked ham, Friday fish etc. and a homemade soup.  We always offer a variety of homemade pies, bread pudding and strawberry shortcake.  A creative cook could have a great time and the customers are appreciative of new fun offerings. Many improvements have been made to the building.  A brand new commercial dishwasher was installed  1 year ago (yes they hand washed the dishes for the last 60 years) along with a complete water softening system.  The roof was re-tarred last summer, an additional cooler was brought in, and a wonderful raised storage area was added to the garage.  A brand new Penzotti furnace was just installed and should make a huge difference in oil usage next winter.  It is extremely efficient and heats the radiators in minutes, unlike the previous furnace.   There is now zoning and separate thermostats for the apartment, restaurant and store.  A brand new top of the line hood and ventilation system was just installed in September. The apartment is a huge 1500+ square feet.  There are 3 bedrooms and 1 Bathroom in the apartment.  One bedroom is not updated and is used as a big laundry room.  The master bedroom was at one time two bedrooms and now is more like a master suite with wood floors.  The kitchen is a big old fashioned country kitchen though with the restaurant you probably won’t use it very much! The sale will include the electric stove and the refrigerator with icemaker. There is also a separate dining room and a roomy living room.  You will find plenty of closets in the apartment for storage but did I mention the extra large basement in the building?  There is also an attached 2 car garage in the back of the building.   You’ll never run out of space for storage. Finally also in the building is an occupied 700 sq ft storefront.  It is currently being rented by a personal fitness trainer.  It has its own basement with a bathroom and plenty of storage there too.  The restaurant makes a small living for us but we have been investing most of it back in on improvements so there is no profit to show for us in the 2 years we’ve owned. If a family worked the restaurant with one waiting the tables and the other cooking (we do not) a much better profit can be made. The previous owners had it that way for over 40 years while raising their family and lived very comfortably.      About the area:  Van Buren is a small Northern Maine town sitting on the St. John River, just a stones throw from the Canadian border.  We have schools, grocery store, library, hardware store, florists, gas stations, hairdressers and community center.  Our summers are glorious and our winters are very snowy and beautiful and cold.  There are plenty of outdoor activities summer and winter including hiking, fishing, ATVing, snowmobiling and nearby ski resorts.  We have winter dogsled races and ice fishing.  There are plenty of nearby lakes for boating and fishing.  We drive 32 miles to the full service town of Presque Isle for our shopping mall, Wal-Mart and various restaurants.  You will hear a lot of French spoken here as most of the residents are of French Acadian descent and many  still speak French, though all of them speak English.  There is a lovely historical Acadian Village with original vintage homes and shops that can be toured in the summertime.  Here is a link to our town to get a feel for it and another of Aroostook County and the Acadian Village.   http://www.vanburenmaine.com/mainstreet/gallery.asp   http://www.visitaroostook.com/   http://themainelink.com/acadianvillage/index.html    Regarding financing.  It is difficult to get financing right now, particularly for a business such as a restaurant that doesn't show profit on paper.  We would consider some financing options but it would be imperative that there were a substantial down payment to ease our risk a little bit.  When the auction ends or purchase price is agreed upon a down payment of 10% must be wired or sent to our attorney to be held in escrow until closing.  The balance will be due at closing.  Closing costs, any inspections or appraisals will be the responsibility of the buyer.  Please use due diligence in your decision to purchase this property and business as this will be an as-is sale.  Come check out the area and make sure that the location and climate is suitable for you.  Training can be negotiated; we will do what we can to make your transition work smoothly and comfortably.  We’ve been asked why we are selling now after owning for 2 years.  This is owned and run by myself and my husband.  I have always loved the restaurant business and this has been a dream of mine for a long time.  Alas, not so much for my husband.  He likes the people but not really restaurant type work and would like to go back to something more satisfying to him.  While I love the restaurant business, I don’t really want to run it myself as I am a good cook but not so good at the banking/bookkeeping part.  So we've decided to sell. Questions can be emailed or you can telephone 318-746-2499 for more information. Thank you.     Place a Bid!