HOA subsidized restaurants

Hi, I live in an HOS in California that has roughly 1,900 homes in a rural mountain community. I am curious if there are many other HOAs in Ca of similar size that have a subsidized restaurant that is labeled an amenity. We have a restaurant, bar and grill and golf course cafe. All operate at a lost, the restaurant/bar and grill being higher at nearly $400,000. Curious if this is common, or are there HOA ran restaurants out there that are at least breaking even?

Wow. It's difficult to read this and not think about just how well - ie, it would be a disaster - this would work in *my* neighborhood.

My only comment is that I'm aware of country clubs that have restaurant/bar setups. But I've spent some time working in Food Service; it's damned difficult to be successful even with a motivated owners in a conventional for-profit business model. I simply can't imagine it working under an HOA. If I'm wrong, I'd be fascinated to hear about a successful implementation. Is that television show where Gordon Ramsey revives failing restaurants - Kitchen Nightmares, I think? - still in production? This would make for a good episode, I think. Maybe several episodes.

(I'm not trying to make fun of your situation; I've simply never even considered such a thing)

Bill

A few of the big golf communities in my area have restaurants as part of their amenities. They never make a profit. It's a tricky situation because if you restrict it to owners and guests only you can't break even, but if you open it up to the public and private events, then you can change your tax status.

We own a condo at in our town that we rent out. It's a nice resort-style community (no golf course) that was built around a town center, with a couple of pools, a large banquet room, a pub, a tiki bar, nice gym, small movie theater. That community loses a fortune on food and beverage sales each year. The tiki bar is open every day but has a very limited and quite expensive menu. The pub used to be open, but they can't afford to keep it open, so it's only open on Fridays and you have to make reservations in advance. The ballroom is only open for brunch on holidays and a special party once in a while. Frankly, the amenities appeal to buyers when the developer is in charge, but once the association takes over they realize there's no way to make money.