Do you lease or own your bbq restaurant building & land?

Pitcherjlt:
I sent you a PM.

Not exactly the response I was hoping for from my fellow members ... No response from anyone who owns a restaurant?

You posted on the 4th, it's now the 6th, and since many places are pretty busy during the summer, I wouldn't expect a lot of responses. It tends to pick up and weird times.

Most of the chains own the land in a separate corp, then lease it back to the restaurant corp. Many tax advantages this way. Also, easier to find investors for the land than for a restaurant if you plan to grow beyond a single location.

I like the idea of owning rather than leasing from someone else also(not what I was describing above, where you would own and lease back from yourself), but a lot of accountants say that the value of money freed up by leasing outweighs the accumulated equity of buying the property. This makes sense if you're planning to sell at some point because it will improve your bottom line, but if you plan to hold and pass on to family at some point, I think the decision becomes less clear.

I own my property and then lease it to my corporation as my accountant recommended.