as it stands

[foxtongue]

The owner of the property turned down my offer of $900,000, insisting on $935,000. It's $20,000 less than advertised. I've signed papers agreeing. This means they want $48,000 by December 8th as a deposit, which leaves us until January 15th to raise a mimimum down-payment of approximately $450,000.

Comments

[litlebopeepshow.livejournal.com]

Good luck with that, if things do get off the ground I'll definatly be a patron.

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

*grins* What would you like to see? I'm more than up to renting to burlesque.

[sheppardzo-14.livejournal.com]

what are you buying, a private island?!

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

A venue with almost limitless potential.

[osmie]

Wow. Congratulations.

It's real.

I truly wish that I could afford to give you more than the piddling amount of money which I will press into your hand the next time I see you. On the other hand, if you can just convince twenty thousand people to give you $50 each, you'll be able to buy the property outright, pay the GST, and still have $8900 left over for renovations...

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

I know a lot of people, but I'm not sure I know twenty thousand. However, maybe the internet does. I'm going to have an incredibly hopeful little paypal button on the main page of the website. Let's see what it does.

If I put down the deposit and don't come up with the rest of the money, I lose it. If I don't have a reasonable chance at collecting over half a million in the next three weeks, I have to walk away.

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

You had some good suggestions as to who to send a press relase to. Can I have you write one? I simply don't have time, and if we gget one put togeher wuick enough, we can get it in the Georgia Straight.

I've got some good How To's on my computer, just dp me a line and I'll send them to you.

[kahoki.livejournal.com]

Good luck with that, as I first thought you were buying a house and not a theater.

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

It's an exceptionally good theatre too. I can live in it.

[tabbylator.livejournal.com]

If you live in it, doesn't that change the rules about how big a down payment you need?

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

That's set by the guy selling it, but it should bring the tazes significantly down.

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

Tazes with an X instead of a Z.

[osmie]

Brainwave.

Have you looked into the possibility of getting charitable status as a non-profit cultural organization? Then all donations would become tax-deductible -- especially relevant for fundraising in the month of December.

With this tight a schedule, it may not be possible before January 15th -- but I don't know enough about the process to say for sure. And even if it takes until February to set up, it can still help raise the remaining $540,000.

[elsabet.livejournal.com]

Totally. People could buy yearly or monthly PAC memberships and they could be tax deductible. Good incentive to have a solid base of guaranteed patrons.

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

There's a dozen reasons why it looks like a good idea but two dozen why it's not once you have a go at the details. Relying on donatins, too, is highly unreasonable. It's an intense number. The best bet is still an angel investor, or a number of investors all in it together. It's a money venture, it will have a profit once it's up.

Thank you, though. I'm glad you're here.

[osmie]

Donations alone are not going to raise half a million dollars by January 15th -- not realistically. (But then what of this fell scheme is "realistic"? "Mad," yes; "necessary," yes.)

However, for those of us who can't afford a full share in the enterprise, donations may be the only way to go -- and the more benefits there are to donating, the more of us there will be. Intuitively it seems to me as though it must be easier to find a $400,000 angel than a $450,000 one, although never having had a tenth that much money in my life, I find that world completely foreign. I could easily be wrong.

The for-profit business which owns the theatre is allowed to be different from the (hypothetical) non-profit cultural organization which leases & operates it. Nor is it problematic for the same person to be CEO of both, as long as you leave a paper trail proving that you're working in the symbiotic best interests of both organizations (as opposed to, say, doubling your own salary every year Because You Can). --I'm 90% certain of all of the above, but a lawyer could confirm exactly where this paragraph intersects with fact.

I'm sure you're totally already working on this, but do be sure to issue an exciting press release separate from the business plan. This is exactly the sort of thing that On the Coast and The Early Edition love to interview people about -- not to mention the Georgia Straight (aren't cultural initiatives its first mandate?) and the Courier's East Side supplement.

[osmie]

And The Tyee.

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

The for-profit business which owns the theatre is allowed to be different from the (hypothetical) non-profit cultural organization which leases & operates it.

Now if I could find someone who would be willing to help me set that up, we'd be laughing. My day-job steals almost every hour that I could use to put that together.

The press release is practically finished, it's going to go out when the website goes live.

[static-eddie.livejournal.com]

So, congratulations are in order?

I should be in bed -or the bath- getting some rest before another two days of non-stop go-stuff... instead, I'm browsing your pics, and scrolling backward in your journal.

I can't believe you're saving a theatre... actually I can... it totally fits.

...and I keep hearing your future biographers (they will be fighting for the rights you know) coming up with introductions.

I'm rooting for you! (or is it rutting?)

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

None yet. I don't have any money yet, you see, so there's nothing happening until I do.

[silveredmane.livejournal.com]

I just read all this. Wow. Wondered why I've not heard from you in the last few days. Got a press release nearly written? Send it to me for editing? I can do it today (Sunday) and have it back to you before dark(er).

I can also help with the establishing of two societies, but these government regulated things take a bit to set up and to register and to become official.

Let me know.............................

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

I sent the horrid mess I've got so far, as well as the prettied up tidy that's going out when the website goes live.

Establishing the societies isn't as critical as it first might seem, as I have my mother's corporation on borrow for setting up shares with. (I need to talk to that lawyer still). The idea of a society renting the building off the company seems to me like the safest.