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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: Drive-In Location
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Barry Floyd
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1079
From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Registered: Mar 2000
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posted 10-31-2007 09:14 AM
Thanks Jack...
Before jumping into the "drive-ins are making a comeback" bandwagon, look hard into the viability of the business as a whole.
Back in the late 1940's and early 1950's (when most of the original 4000+ drive-ins were built), the country was still riding the victory wave of soldiers coming home from WWII. Instead of moving back into the clusters of the big cities, they spread out into the suburbs, and almost every one of them had a car or two to drive. Back then, most drive-ins were built out on the main highway on the fringe outskirts of town where land was cheap, the skies were dark, and well within a comfortable driving distance from the city and the suburbs.
Like Jonathan said, back then there was no zoning laws in place and practically no building codes either. You basically could build anything anywhere as long as you had the money and the will to do it. Todays climate is alot different.
When we first started exploring the possibility of opening our theatre, the first thing we did is take a look at the locations of the existing drive-ins (if any) in the area, also paying attention to the indoor theatres as well. Drive-ins are very much a "niche" type of business. It's not like the typical chain run multiplex - with one on every corner. What we did was try to find a location that didn't have another drive-in around within a 50 mile radius, close enough (30-40 minutes) from a major population base to draw from, and far enough away from any operating indoor theatre where clearances and day and date operation wouldn't be an issue. In our case we litterally laid out a map of Tennessee on the floor and marked all of the existing drive-in locations, and then started looking at the empty holes on the map. Where we finally ended up was a location that fit all of the above criteria... although 4 years later, our surrounding conditions have changed.
When we built in 2003, we were the only drive-in within 30-40 miles on the East side of Nashville, and we had one of only 4 screens in all of Wilson County. In December of 2004, a new 10 plex opened up about 12 miles away. In 2005 a new twin screen drive-in was built and opened about 25 miles away from us. In 2006 another 14 screens opened about 20 miles away. Honestly, out of all those new screens going up, the only one that made any significant impact was the other drive-in.
Our first location we found was an empty 12 acre parcel of land, out on the Highway on the outskirts of town (sound familiar??) with the landscape dotted sparsely with rolling farm land. Because it was zoned "agricultural" we had to go thru the rezoning process. At our zoning meeting in August of 2001, about 80+ people showed up to protest. Citing all of the old "stereotypical" drive-in issues (loud cars, teenagers, loud music, porno movies, etc.) we got shot down within 20 minutes. Moving on to our next site we found the old abandoned drive-in here in town, still relatively intact, although overgrown with weeds and junked cars. Once again we ended up at the zoning meeting. The same 80+ people showed up, citing the same issues. We eneded up getting "deferred" from the April meeting to the May meeting because the county commissioners insisted I hold a public meeting with the protesters to let them know "how much I was going to negatively effect the value of their property". We held the meeting... which was more like a lynch mob. At the May zoning meeting 200+ people showed up to protest, and they brought with them the news crew from the local CBS affiliate in Nashville. I was interviewed on the court house steps as the "Defeated Would Be Drive-In Developer".
Long story short..... We were invited to the community of Watertown (about 15 miles away) by the Chamber of Commerce president, and he litterally rolled out a map of the town and said , "Anywhere you want to put it.. we can make it happen."
We ended up in the Watertown Industrial Park, as it is the ONLY location in town that has water, sewer, 3 phase power, and natural gas all in one place, and for a drive-in you'll need all of the above.
In the end, we finally got to build our drive-in, the city earns some major sales tax revenue from us, and we have become one of the largest "family friendly" attractions in the county.
In a nutshell... look for a minimum 15-20 acres of land that can be rezoned as "Highway Business" (or whatever it's called in your area). You can build a single screen on a much smaller parcel, but I found out real quick that a newly constructed single screen drive-in is just a really neat hobby that doesn't generate enough cash flow to cover it's own expenses. Think 2 or more screens.
Look for all available utilities - Water, Sewer, 3 Phase electrical power, and natural gas..if it's available.
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Barry Floyd
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1079
From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Registered: Mar 2000
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posted 11-01-2007 12:53 AM
Mark said:
>>Ya no longer need three phase power for a D.I. unless you have one hell of a huge popcorn popper. I know of many "single phase drive ins that get along just fine. With multiple single phase switchers in parallel you can run anything up to the largest xenon lamp made.<<<
Yes that's true, in fact I've seen such an installation at the Swan Drive-In in Blue Ridge, Georgia, and fellow Film-Tech'er Steve Wilson has such a set up at his drive-in in Indiana. Although it can be done and you could go ahead and "rig up" such a system, my question is "If you have the opportunity to choose your location such as with a new build, why would you?"
If you can find a place with access to 3 phase power, I wouldn't turn it down.
We've got 600 amps of 3 phase power at our drive-in, and I wish we had more. Both of our 4k power supplies for the lamp houses use it. The compressor / condenser unit for the HVAC system uses 3 phase as does the air handling unit, our 36" flat grill in the kitchen uses 100 amps of 3 phase, and the Giles deep fryer uses another 60 amps of 3 phase.
We are looking to convert the kitchen from all electric to all gas next spring. The gas company will run the 2" line from the street to the building for free, and we just have to pipe it to the kitchen. We plan on replacing our one electric deep fryer with three gas fired fryers, and replacing the 36" electric flat grill with a 48" gas char-broiler / flat grill combo unit.
Gotta remember... we're not talking about a movie theatre here, we're talking about a fast food restaurant that also happens to show movies in the parking lot.
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Monte L Fullmer
Film God
Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted 11-01-2007 01:32 AM
Plus gas has a much higher BTU unit content where electricity can't even come close. Plus, the nice thing about gas is that, "when it's on, it on, and when it's off, it's off" i.e., You turn gas on, it's HOT, while you have to wait for electricity to get HOT..
Gas is just more efficent than electricity any day of the week..
I work at a Drive-In where we cook our hot dogs and burgers outside on a 3 burner BBQ grill, and you fill that grill up with patties and "tube steaks", there's a lot of heat contained in that covered grill to where I can get those items out in a quick.. as what's mentioned: times means everything..
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