During my work commute (which has gotten longer recently due to road construction), I started spinning out scenarios on how to merge my job (real estate) with my interest in kayak building. Consider this "market research" and your posts (good, bad and ugly) are requested:

Here goes --
Background. In many metro areas, the downturn in the economy has created many high vacancy situations, most notably in industrial real estate (at least in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area). This makes for attractively priced lease rates. After securing some modestly priced industrial warehouse space, I would offer (for a modest fee) individual boat makers their own space (demarcated on the floor) to construct their wooden boats. They could be anyone who is pressed for space or doesn't want to slop up their living quarters (or whose significant others won't let them slop up their living quarters). I envision a sort of "wooden boat building incubator", where folks were unified in their hobby and could get pointers by a seasoned builder who might be next door.

Prices would have to be low to make it appealing -- say $100-$150/3 months (haven't run the numbers to know if they make sense) with options to buy other tools or supplies on site or even rent a boat building "toolkit" or the like for an additional fee.

It sounds like a good idea in theory, but I may just be misjuding the interest level that is out there that could support something like this. Look forward to reading the responses.

Greg