Vale Automotive/Performance Workshops?

[Franco Cozzo]

Just saw that a well known and long established QLD automotive business (Zok Race Carbs/Zox Performance) is closing down, due to inability to find a suitable factory in an industrial estate to run their business out of:

Originally Posted by Zok Race Carbs/Zox Performance

MY LAST POST…….
Today is the last day of Zox performance and Zok race carbs…..
Last week we handed over the keys to our last shed while for six weeks my wife did the search for other sheds we have applied for the most to least suitable and everything is great until the moment we mention the dyno and thats where it all goes to shiit it doesnt matter how many photos i supply references from previous neighbours no one wants to know about the dyno one place wouldnt even let us drill holes in the concrete for the hoist .
without the dyno i am stuffed and every agent we speak to says the same no one wants dynos or high performance cars .
Everything that was in our previous shop is now in a storage facility we started in one corner of the shed and just boxed everything up i have rented two forty foot containers and a patch of concrete so i have somewhere to take everything and sort out what goes to who if you have a job in my shop its safe and i need two weeks to sort out everyones parts and finalize their accounts i know what happens in other shops but PLEASE do not panic no one will lose a single part or lose a single cent i have lost a fortune on my machinery but thats life my main goal is to finish this without anyone other than me losing out .
i have done my best to try to keep my shop open to finish everyones jobs but if i can’t rent somewhere to work i see no other option i am sorry to all who i will dissapoint but i’ve given it my all i have nothing left .
if you have a job in the shop i will contact you personally in the next couple of days my phone numbers will remain in use but be aware i am moving with cranes and trucks and will not be able to return any calls until the end of the day .
Thank you to everyone who has supported our shop over the last 27 years they’ve been the best years of my life ……

https://www.facebook.com/zoxperformance/

Not so much that they couldn't find a suitable property, more that landlords of commercial properties don't want automotive workshops in their buildings - holes in the floors to mount hoists, fights over car parking spaces with neighbours, cars being road tested constantly and also noise, from their social media posts it looks like as soon as they mentioned they had a dyno or hoists, that was a hard no from land lords and their custom was rejected.

mate one of the sheds we put an offer in on is $7200 a month in rent and outgoings and they are all fine except the dyno now my dyno room is decent and has even been inspected tested and approved by WPH&S in 8 years not ONE complaignt about noise but they just dont want to know about it even general mechanics are not wanted because of all the road testing we do it all in a neat room not one sees or hears us but it all means nothing to building owners

Even the workshop that looks after my stuff, they're a long term tenant that had two large factories rented out, the rent got jacked up so high, with a lot of the surrounds being turned into residential high rise developments, that they separated their two businesses they had next to each other and sent one to a few suburbs away, while determining their next moves for the remaining one.

It seems everyone either wants apartment building developments or factories just being leased for basic things like warehousing - theres been a loss of many automotive workshops recently as their custom isn't really wanted from landlords, as well as the general public and the government having the ****s up with modified cars.

Whats your thoughts? Do you think we're going to keep losing automotive businesses through issues on finding suitable locations and being frowned upon by the public - or isolated issue?