Great place to live or vacation but......

[pats fan]

If you look around the Laconia area there is a lot of commercial property that is now empty and available for lease. It just confirms that this is a great place to vacation or live but a difficult place to own a profitable business.

The Dodge dealership across from Bonanza has been vacant for at least a year. The Burger King property is still vacant, and the Fitzgerald Motorsports building is for lease. HK Powersports built a nice new building and now has their old building for lease too. Weirs Beach Citgo closed for the winter because it was so slow. B Maes building has been for sale for quite some time. Mr. Fireplace is out of business. Paugus Diner is going to auction. The Car Craft building is for lease.

The Handy Landing General Store was never open last summer and now there are two bedroom condominiums being built there. I stopped in to look and they appear to be really nice and have a good view of the Channel. One of the construction workers said that they are being sold with a boat slip. It is sad to see one more business go. The store has been a fixture in the Weirs for over 50 years.

It may be somewhat a result of the current economic conditions but times are changing and the Laconia area is still a tough place to run a profitable business.