Eddie Walker, How's the Campground coming?

[EddieWalker]

Re: Eddie Walker, How\'s the Campground coming?

Nat,

I was at a convention last year in that area, but I don't really know it. There's some really neat caves if your into that. Theres a few nice wild animal parks you can see. That's my thing.

There's also a really, really, really neat wild seed farm that has some of the most amazing displays. Fields planted in all one color. Have you ever seen a solid acre of bluebonnets?

It's between Fredricksburg and Kerrville if my memory is right and it's called something like the wild seed store, but I'm not positive on it.

This picture doesn't begin to show how amazing the place is.

One of the biggest complaints I've heard from RV Park owners is how many RV'ers can't drive. For allot of them, they are now driving something 5 times bigger then anything they've been in before. The owners go on and on about how they run into everything thats less then ten feet from the road. Just about every park I've toured, you can see the damage. Driving off the road, cutting corners too quick and running over everything from boulders to campfire pits.

But that's all part of the fun and to be expected. One owner of a huge RV Park in Austin said his number one rule for his employees is to wave at everything the moves. It's gonna be my number one rule also.

To get started, I'm planning on blacktop for roads and gravel for my sites. Later down the road I hope to concrete the pads.

 

[Bird]

Re: Eddie Walker, How\'s the Campground coming?

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( One of the biggest complaints I've heard from RV Park owners is how many RV'ers can't drive )</font>

Unfortunately, I'm sure that's true! Some of the most hilarious things I saw in my travels were RVers trying to get their rigs into or out of campgrounds or sites. And I've seen them come into campgrounds and leave to go on down the road if the campground didn't have a pull through site available. Some of the larger campgrounds have attendants on golf carts who escort campers to their site and assist them in getting in and set up.

Did I overlook something in your description of the amenities you intend to provide? I don't remember seeing a store or laundry facilities.

 

[johan3400]

Re: Eddie Walker, How\'s the Campground coming?

I think we are coming very close to Eddie hosting the very first TBN Tractor Rodeo. Events to include back hoe work, fel events, grading and others which appear on his work list. To be held Jan of 06. Look out Texas a bunch of tractor jockeys are on the way!

 

[RobS]

Re: Eddie Walker, How\'s the Campground coming?

Sounds like you're on the right track Eddie, and you've obviously done your homework. You're building the kind of place we like to visit!

The nicest place we ever stayed at was the one that got us into our own RV. We had rented a travel trailer and stayed at Twin Creek Resort in Gatlinburg. It was a way to test the RV lifestyle. We were hooked, mostly due to the campground. Showers were as you have described. All individual, full tile and spotless. The grounds were manicured beautifully. All roads and sites were asphalt with a concrete pad next to each camper for table and chairs. Trash pickup every morning. Pool had spacious concrete decking around it so we never felt crammed in.

We've since been back there with our own camper and enjoyed it as much or more the second time.

Many nicer places deal with the drivers by providing escorts and set-up services. They'll lead you to your site in a golf cart and offer to pull your rig in if it's a tough site. And yes, all staff members must be friendly, helpful folks. I suspect Garry will work just fine plus he already has the golf cart!

Let me know if you want/need other input. We don't have near the experience of Bird but have stayed at a number of places, some nice, some not-so-nice.

Keep the updates coming, it's a lot of fun to watch your place develop /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

Re: Eddie Walker, How\'s the Campground coming?

Bird, you're right, I didn't describe my buildings very well.

My store will be after my entrance. You will drive around my front pasture with the vinyl three rail fence to a gazebo that will be used as an express registration on my busy days. Friday and Saturday. Express regristration will provide guests with a map to their space and a form to fill out after they get set up. Then they can come back and pay for their visit. Every park that does this said they have never had to go look for a guest to pay.

Right after the gazebo will be my store. It will have the registration desk, office, utilities for cable tv and the internet. There will be lots of tables and chairs around the windows for viewing into the exotic wildlife preserve. I'll have packaged foods for sale and coffee. There will be space for a resturant in the future, but not until I have enough guests to justify the expense.

Just off the store will be the swimming pool.

On the other side of the swimmng pool will be my bathroom/laundry/meeting room. It will have 8 individual bathrooms, a Laundromat with 8 washers and 8 dryers and a 28 ft by 32 ft meeting room with a kitchenette for prepairing meals for rally groups or other larger get togethers.

My tent sites will have five individual bathrooms in their building.

My Cabins will have a bedroom with queen sized bed, a large bathroom and a small kitchnette along with living space and a large front porch.

The lake will have two docks with gazebos on them.

If you were to take a left after my gazebo and not go to the store, you will come to my free dump station. This is something that I think will really help bring people to my park who might not otherwise take that chance. I'll have city sewer to accomodate that issue, so volume wont be a concern like it is on septic tanks in parks. The built in expense of offering this service for free should more then make up for the amount of positive exposure it will provide in marketing. Especially with Tyler State Park just around the corner from me, which is pretty much sold out all summer long.

Future buildings will include a large meeting building in the 5,000 sq ft range and two more bathroom/laundry buildings along with numerous gazebos throughout the park. I'll also build my home on the land just across from the store in a patch of trees I'm saving for just that reason. I want to be able to keep an eye on the store and driveway comeing in.

I will bring my plans with me to Jims when we all get together for some detailed input and advice.

I realize that one of my limitations is focussing on a certain point until it is set in stone in my mind, even though there might be a better way of doing it. I'm also aware that very little of what I'm doing is original in thought or aproach.

My strength is that I'm taking advantage of people that are smarter than I am and have already proven what works and then I'm combining their ideas into a slightly different park with an attraction.

Eddie

 

[Panache]

Re: Eddie Walker, How\'s the Campground coming?

A man with a plan. Keep up the good work. Sounds nice. The first few times I looked at your pic in the threads I thought you were a Scotsman in a kilt. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Being of Scottish descent it was a natural thought. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Then I looked a little closer and I realized you are on a steer. OOPS! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[MaxC]

Re: Eddie Walker, How\'s the Campground coming?

Eddie, I've been a lurker for a few weeks but you brought me out of the woodwork with your RV park plan.

I'm curious about the financial aspects of the plan. How much will you charge? You clearly are differentiating your park and making a large investment, will you charge premium pricing? What occupancy rate will you need to achieve to break even?

What's the whole project going to run? How much of that is your sweat equity? Are you going to get an SBA loan? Other debt?

I'd actually like to something similar near Canton in 5 years. Cabins would be my main draw, maybe 12 and 10-30 RV spaces. Still not sure what I will spend on cabins, maybe $30K each? What's your budget on cabins?

I haven't even picked out the land, so you are far ahead of me.

 

[EddieWalker]

Re: Eddie Walker, How\'s the Campground coming?

Panache,

Not sure how you figured I was half Scottish from the picture of me on a longhorn, but it's impressive dediction on your part.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Re: Eddie Walker, How\'s the Campground coming?

MaxC,

Price for overnight guests will be $25 a night with everything included. I hate those parks that nickel and dime you for a shower or a longer site or whatever...

Cabin rates are still not locked in, but probably around $45 a night.

The SBA is limited to $500,000. I looked into it, but that would cut too many corners for me to build what I feel is the minimum required to provide a place people will reccomend to their friends and total strangers.

Originaly I was going to go the log cabin route on cabins, but they just don't hold up well here in East Texas. Too much humidity along with all the rain. I'm gonna stick build them and then rough em up. Basic rule of thumb when building is $15 to seal it in, then the interior finish is what eats up the cash. I have some experience in this and know I can build a 400 ft cabin for $10,000. The budget will be twice that in my proposal to the bank. Nobody believes me what it actually costs to build.

National occupancy studies show the medium occupancy rate across the board is 54% with the average occupancy near 80%. I use 50% in my pro formas as my ultimate goal. My opening projections are for 10% occupancy increasing an additional 10% every four months until I reach fifty. Operating expenditures are based on occupancy rate along with the laon amount to put me right over these occupancy figures to break even at my rates.

I'm extremely conservative in my estimates. It gets real easy to see dollar signs without having a source to actually generate them.

I looked at some land near Canton early on, but desided against it. Trade Days gurantees one sold out weekend a month, but the rest of the month, it's a ghost town in a bad location with no other reason to be there.

Utilities were also an issue. Not enough water and no land with access to sewer. You can get away with septic on a small park, but you're severley limited on your size and every single RV Park owner on septic hates it. There's nothing good about an RV coming in and dumping 40 gallons of waste all at once. Multiply that by a dozen RV's and you have a septic system that wont be able to keep up.

A really small park should manage on a rural water supply. Most county roads have a two inch line. If your lucky, and preasure is good, then they might let you pull an inch and a half off the line. That might be enough for what you want to do, but you might only be able to get a one inch line in.

Going off memory, I think you can pull a dozen half inch lines off a one inch line. What happes when everyone takes a shower at the same time? This is the second biggest issue after sewer.

If you dig a well, you have to stay under a certain level of usage or you become a utility provider. If that happens, then life just got really complicated.

I spent two years looking for my land. When I found it, I had to buy it from three diferent sellers to get what I need to have sewer, water and power. Access was an issue, but I was willing to deal with what came up if I had the big 3.

I have three phase available, but won't use it. I have a 12 inch water main across the highway and an 8 inch along the side of my land. I'll bring a six inch main into my place and cap it with a fire hydrant. Then I'll run 4 inch mains to my sites breaking it down as I go.

Studies have shown that parks with under one hundred sites don't make much of a profit. They are family operations owned by a retired couple who think it's a good retirement. Visiting them is night and day from a park over 100 sites. These parks are run as a business makeing a profit. The potential is there for a very good income if you can keep them coming back and you provide what the competition isn't.

One advantage to building now is almost all the competition was build 30 years ago. Nobody planned of 45 foot RV's with quad slides and pulling a SUV. Envirnonmental issues have made it almost impossible in most of the country to build a new park. Texas has some limitations, but overall, it's probably the best state for such and undertaking.

I hope this helps,
Good Luck,
Eddie

 

[RobS]

Re: Eddie Walker, How\'s the Campground coming?

Impressive Eddie, and again it looks like you've done your homework. I too, was curious about your financials.

One more question... Will you offer seasonal rentals? Only reason I ask is we favor resort-type parks like what you are building but get turned off by seasonals. We are very much vacation RVer's. Some large parks have done a nice job of seperating the two but for some reason, they don't normally mix well.

Did you look into franchises at all (KOA etc.)? Pros/cons?

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif