Ballroom dancing is taking off in our community. Some of us avid dancers and some teachers are thinking about buying some type of center with a large dance floor. It would be owned by the dancers and others. Comps could be held there, available practice space, visiting teachers are welcome, lots of social dances, and etc.

Has anyone started anything like this?
This would be something independent and with no affiliation with any type of franchise. If so, how did it workout and etc.

I have no experiece with the type of venture you describe.
But I do have had some bad experiences with joined things in general. And there are a lot of things you will have to settle from the very start.

So of the top of my head:
1) whatever you do, have a solicitor put everything down in nice, precise, legal, binding documents.
2) make sure that building maintenance is worked out. Counting on people's goodwill will ruin the nice floor you have put in within a month. And neither will sticking a cleaning rota to the fridge with a cute magnet work out.
3) a bit morbid perhaps, but what happens when one of the original joined owners dies? Is their part of the building inherited by their children? If the person who inherited is not interested in dancing and therefor not interested in this project, what is the procedure for them to sell their part of the project to the rest?
4) how will this property you own appear on your taxes?

Therefor I'd suggest you have both a lawyer and a solicitor look into how you can get together as a non-profit community thing. This will allow you to draw up a company policy, a charter that will clear up all the little details and be legaly binding.
After all laws aren't necessarily there to restrict you, but to protect you.
For the purchase you will need to do quite a few legal things anyway, so it will be best if you use the opportunity to cover everything else as well.

I know I forgot half the things I wnted to say but...

Good luck

Stavros
(fighting the co-owner of a certain property, who is trying to con him into bankruptcy)

Closest we have to that is 2 studios owned by multiple independent teachers and one studio owned by a couple, who do not teach. They rent usage to various independent teachers.

I would think ownership with a large number of people, could be difficult. Making sure everyone does their share of work and gets what they think is their share of usage. Getting everyone to agree to rules and to follow them.

Jim. I beleive, or so i have been told. that some countries in Europe. Germany is one where the clubs are owned by the Amateurs. Only belonging to a club can a person compete. The ordinary professionally owned can only teach socialy. To compete you have to be in a club. Sounds like a much better system than ours.

It sounds elitist to me. Sounds like the way they treated golf professionals back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Like when they told Francis Ouimet he couldn't play in the U.S. Open because he wasn't a member of a recognized country club. “Golf is a game for gentlemen, not for the likes of you.” There are times when I think ballroom dance is exactly the same way.

Oh, by the way, Francis did get into the Open and, as a 20-year-old amateur, beat Harry Vardon and Ted Rey in a playoff. Not bad for a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. And I knew all about his story before Disney decided to turn it into a movie.

More of what I had in mind would be more like a tennis club or golf club.
Lots of members, places to practice, classes,monthly fees, events and etc. Maybe have some type of manager to help keep the place organized. Independent teachers could rent space and with lots of visting teachers. Maybe 50 or 100 members that pay for a membership and a monthly fee. I have heard of such places in the midwest. Houston has something called the Dance Place that is similiar to what I'm describing. Sort of an adult dance center for serious ballroom dancers.

We are lucky in the area that I live there are at least 3 extra large rentable dance floors or facilities suitable for ballroom events. But places to practice are somewhat problematic. Personally I bought a house with a with dance in mind and have a dance practice room, but not anything that I could do V. Waltz or Foxtrot on.

Has anyone heard of anything like what I have described that was successful?

If you are in the US, you might want to incorporate the group as a non-profit organization. That would simplify tax issues and provide a legally-sanctioned structure for the management of the space, finances, etc. It might be similar to a church where the property is owned by the congregation.

It does sound like a lot of work unless someone is going to be paid for managing it. There's scheduling the rentals, collecting payments, accounting, paying bills, suspervising cleaning and maintenance. Who will be there to unlock and relock the doors every time the space is rented or someone wants to practice? Who will buy paper towels for the bathrooms? Etc.

Not trying to discourage you--it sounds great. It might be easier if you could find a space to rent full-time, rather than trying to own the space. That would cut down on some of the paperwork and administrative hassles.

Jim. I like your idea and hope you can make a go of it. i can't tell you how to go about it but I will mention what has happend here. Our dance schools teachers have been happy hiring school halls to run their classes. This has gone on from at least 1945. At that time to hire was not expensive. But not today. There isn't a school hall that doesn't charge $A250 for about four hours. To hire something to run a competition in is about $4ooo. or so for the whole day. And that's just to enter the door without the other costs. I've often wondered if they the professionals who have done quite well in the past. If only a couple of them had been willing to plough some money into buying their own property. They might have set a precedent that others might have followed. Only dreaming. This incedentaly will go down like a lead balloon here. Best of luck. If it were me I would go ahead.

The Allegro Ballroom in Emeryville, California, is the kind of place you describe, Jim. They have a web site at http://www.allegroballroom.com

Anon 3 wrote:
"To hire something to run a competition in is about $4ooo. or so for the whole day. And that's just to enter the door without the other costs."

I don't know where you are or what kind of venue you are renting for competitions, but my ballroom club in the San Francisco area regularly rents venues that we hold competitions in for about $1500 per day.

Actually if you remember from the movie that was actually what they said to Harry Vardon himself, who grew up to become a world class professional.