Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Maine
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 10-28-2007, 11:24 AM
 
14 posts, read 60,534 times
Reputation: 10

Advertisements

We have an opportunity to buy a restaurant in northern Maine. I want to know everything about life up there. Advice, suggestions? I love the outdoors and am excited about winter life. What are the negatives and the positives to the northern most point of Maine? Thanks for any help!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-28-2007, 11:41 AM
 
Location: Maine
7,727 posts, read 12,414,878 times
Reputation: 8344
Where in Northern Maine? West, East, Border? What town?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-28-2007, 11:54 AM
 
14 posts, read 60,534 times
Reputation: 10
Van Buren. So, I guess that's border, right?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-28-2007, 12:04 PM
 
Location: Maine
7,727 posts, read 12,414,878 times
Reputation: 8344
Right lol. Okay here's all your basic info,.. population, schools, etc. > Van Buren, Maine (ME) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news, sex offenders
I do know that Van Buren has had some incidences of people border hopping with drugs. Ecstasy, Meth and The date rape drug (I forget the letters). I'm not able to say it's prevalent, I just know of some situations that took place in the last couple of years. Read the info,.. hopefully someone with more knowledge of the area will be able to give you a more detailed picture of the town
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-28-2007, 12:12 PM
 
Location: Maine
7,727 posts, read 12,414,878 times
Reputation: 8344
St. John Valley

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know it is further than 45 minutes of Bangor, however the St. John Valley has a lot to offer for everyone. We are extremely rural and the schools and healthcare facilities are top performers in the State. I am a young man (33 years young) with a family of 5 and truely would not consider moving to any other area in the country. We have the North Maine Woods next door, Canada is next door to us, lots of country roads to explore. ATV trails galore, Snowmobile trails galore, two Northern Maine heritage centers, one in Fort Kent and another in Presque Isle. A few years ago my organization co-sponsored a Junior World Cup Biatholon with much success. I would look into this option just for fun. You may really enjoy what you see here in "The Valley". I purchased my 5 year old ranch with 3 acre lot for a total of $50,000 and borrowed a total 15 years for it. I work in the Healthcare field so finding employment is not a problem. Our largest employer in Aroostook County is Healthcare. In Northern Maine we are looking for some young self sufficient adult families who can contribute to our local communities. Check out my small town Chamber website.

Town of Van Buren Maine

Van Buren Pine Runners - Home

The Town of Van Buren, Maine

I have some friends that finally got the guts to move to Northern Maine (Van Buren) from Providence RI. They have since needed much less medications to cope with the daily stresses they encountered in Providence. They recently purchased a two story 2500 square foot farm house on 9 acres of farm forest land with a pond, swimming pool, and barn for $135,000! They are happily raising their 3 children without regrets, have since opened two businesses and works at a local telemarketing center in Limestone.

This is just my 2 cents, but it may be worth taking a look.
By Valley Living ,.. hope it helps
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-28-2007, 02:32 PM
 
Location: Northern Maine
10,428 posts, read 18,750,822 times
Reputation: 11563
Several questions must be asked:

Can a customer ride a snowmobile right to the door?
Can a customer ride an ATV right to the door?
Is it on Route 1? That's the main drag.
Is it open today? If it's closed, people have developed the habit of eating elsewhere.
Are the present owners making money?
Can you see the books?

If all answers are positive, take a ride up. It's worth a look.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-29-2007, 06:32 AM
 
14 posts, read 60,534 times
Reputation: 10
It is on Main St/Route 1. They are open now, but the big issue is that they won't show their books or even hint at profit margin without a visit up there. I don't know for sure about the snowmobiles and atvs, but they do get a lot of winter business from the trails. So, I'm guessing the answer is yes. The town itself looks very nice from what I can tell on the internet. We've just been doing a lot of figuring to find out if a town that small can support the 4 or so restaurants that they have. Is there much tourism?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-29-2007, 07:24 AM
 
Location: Northern Maine
10,428 posts, read 18,750,822 times
Reputation: 11563
Tourism in Van Buren is limited. That's why I mentioned snowmobiles and ATVs. You need something to attract business other than good food. I understand their reluctance to mail you their business records. They don't know you and don't want their competitors to know what their competition is doing. Does this place have a gas pump? Do the competitors?

Last edited by Northern Maine Land Man; 10-29-2007 at 07:44 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-29-2007, 06:30 PM
 
336 posts, read 846,201 times
Reputation: 348
if it's the restaurant that was on EBAY, they said they had not made a profit, but the previous owners had.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-18-2007, 02:28 AM
 
1 posts, read 4,201 times
Reputation: 11
What's the name of this place? I grew up in Van Buren so I can tell you if it's worth it or not. haha. There's only a handful of restaurants.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2022 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Maine
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:58 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top