We are a company located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There is a ideal location in the metro area. We seek a investor or group for financing. It will consist of 2 floors. Primary floor - Restaurant. Secondary floor - Lounge. Total Req. $5.5M US. The location is prime, located between existing clubs and new condominium development. City has near by path allocated for development. High ROI. Serious individuals only.

Nightclub/lounge financing is undoubtedly one of the trickiest to secure. You could be at for a while or have a one of a kind concept and partner up with someone overnight. The key as you probably know is to go in with a few silent partners to share the risk. Having been involved with a few, i would confirm that a well run club would return the $5.5M in 3-4 years or less. I have seen business plans for nightclubs in Puerto Rico, NYC etc and one of the things they all lack is a coherent marketing strategy and extensive operational experience. Startup costs are on ofe the biggest issue as a huge amount of capital is required for startup and most of it turns into sunk costs in the form of property improvements and furniture, fixtures etc. A good entertainment setup in one of the lower end NYC clubs alone is approx $400,000. Costs and Margins are another story....and perhaps a lecture in itself

All details aside, i do think that the cost of $5.5 million sounds excessive, despit have a restaurant component to it (unless you are buying very expensive RE). I have seen a few trendy spots in NYC and Miami cost $2.2-4 million. Maybe as per your lounge/business concept its justified. I would advise you to do a detailed market study and contact some owners of existing successful nightclubs or restaurants. I think you will have the best luck with them (Do keep marketing ideas to yourself). Other than that i do not think that you will even close to $5.5 M business loan or equity investment from a traditional lender or as private equity from someone who is not in the business.

Best of luck!

Most of the lenders that frequent this place are real estate lenders, and one of the first things that they would like to see is the amount of money that you will be putting into the real estate component of the deal.

It would also be helpful if you provided more detail about how the sources and uses of funds is going to happen. However, the bottom line is that you probably won’t get any lender until there is substantial equity behind the project. And by substantial, I am talking around 50% of total cost so that the lender’s exposure is covered totally or largely by the real estate collateral.