We had a name and a logo for our restaurant…but NO LOCATION!!! We looked and looked and looked! Do you know how hard it is to talk to a Commercial Real Estate agent? They don’t call you back!!!!! (no offense to any commercial real estate agents, but this might be something to improve upon to make it easier for your average person looking for a commercial property) I am guessing this is because they do a lot of work and many people don’t end up making a purchase or sale???? Not sure. It was very frustrating. We did have one commercial real estate agent who helped us out when he could. But, we got really lucky. We have a friend, Nancy Geant, who has a son, TJ, with an intellectual disability, and she also happens to be a real estate agent who believed in our mission. While she is not a commercial agent, she delved right into the commercial world. She tapped into her resources and took it on! And we are so very grateful to her because she found us our location! If you ever need a real estate agent that truly goes above and beyond, contact Nancy Geant at Gloria Nilson & Company Real Estate on Hwy 35 in the Middletown office.
We will be located at 418 Rt. 35 in the Red Bank section of Middletown. We purchased the former Rigaletto’s, between Thornberry’s and the car wash (across from Whole Foods). But, there were some issues. The location has only 14 parking spaces! We don’t know how many customers we will have. It could be a lot, it could be a little. So, before we could make an offer, we needed to figure out parking. I had my first experience with this project that required me to go outside of my comfort zone. I went into the appliance store next to the restaurant, Thornberry’s Appliance, and asked to speak to the owner. I explained our potential parking issue and something wonderful happened. Mr. Thornberry graciously said that we could use his parking lot on the side of the restaurant! This solved such a potentially big problem for us. We are so grateful. We were now able to make an offer on the property!
In writing these posts, a theme is emerging…kindness and generosity. We aim to make No Limits Cafe a community place….and so far, because of the kindness and generosity of people like Nancy Geant and Mr. Thornberry and the aforementioned people in previous posts, it is becoming just that…a community place. Look for our next post…you will read about more kindness and generosity!