Italian Restaurant for Sale in David, Chiriqui, Panama

Excellent Italian Restaurant

Major price reduction -- price lowered from $145,000 to $99,000. Owner wants to retire.

One of the three best, most popular restaurants in the city of David is for sale. How do I know? Because I live in David and I know all the good restaurants -- all the bad ones, too. I eat at this restaurant often, so I can personally vouch for the fact that the food is excellent and it does good business.

The restaurant specializes in pizza, pasta and steaks. The pepperoni pizza with roquefort is to die for. The imported argentine steaks are the best in town.

The Argentine owner has figured out what people want and he gives it to them -- good food, not too fancy, with prompt, friendly service, at reasonable prices. Not rocket science, but you would be amazed at how few restaurant owners have grasped this basic reality of the food service business, especially in Panama.

The restaurant seats approximately 150 people and comes fully furnished and equipped with 2 pizza ovens, commericial gas barbecue, gas grill, 10 burner gas stove, refrigerators and everything else required for a turn-key operation. Gross revenues average $250,000-$300,000 per year, with net income of roughly $60,000-$70,000. There are two years left on the lease, currently $1000 per month, and the landlord is willing to extend the lease for 3 more years.

If you are interested in opening a restaurant in Panama, you could probably start from scratch with an investment of maybe $100,000--$150,000 for a restaurant of this size. But the vast majority of all new restaurants fail in the first two years. I have seen plenty open and close within a year or two in David.

Or, for roughly the same investment, you can buy this very successful restaurant which has been in business 5 years with an excellent reputation, strong revenues, and a proven track record.

It is hard to understand why anyone would want to open a new restaurant, with a high risk of failure, and all the headaches of getting started in a new business, when you could buy an existing one like this with a successful business formula, a proven track record, and strong revenues, for the same amount of money.

The owner is in his 60s and no longer has the energy to run a business that is open 6 days a week for long hours. He wants to retire, but will stay on with a new owner for a 3-4 month training and transition period.