MegaTowers Closing

With great sadness, and a lot of soul-searching, I've decided that I'll need to begin winding down operations at the MegaTowers. It's been a great and fun experiment attempting to manage the rental of residential and commercial space, in a managed setting. However, the project could not break even, or even come close to it.

I'm going to wind down my involvement with so much land, and focus on scripting and other projects I'd like to work on.

Thanks to everyone who supported and rented at the MegaTowers, it's been fun!

If anyone is interested in purchasing the buildings, let me know. If you would like to purchase the land, also let me know. I have begun selling some of the land, but let me know if you are interested in a particular parcel chunk. I'd like to keep the large plots together if possible.

If you are a current renter, I'm very sorry, but as the land is sold, you will lose your rental space. You can of course get a refund for time remaining by clicking your rental cube, and selecting "Refund".

I'm surprised that the towers could not break even. What was the biggest obstacle facing profitability? Was it the declining L$?

To me with so many malls making money hand over fist, its amazing that this venture needs to close down. Its also very sad.

I didn't include events to draw people in, because I wanted to keep lag down and make it a shopping, living, and developing experience. I think that was the biggest problem. Also, the declining L$ didn't help as it kept rental prices higher than people wanted, though the actual price was average or lower than most rental spaces in SL.

I wonder if Anshe Corp or someone similar would be interested in doing a Kmart-Sears type merger with you.

I loved the MegaTowers. They were (one of) the coolest buildings in SL. The closing of these buildings is definately a blow to the "cities" and densely populated area movement.

Is SL doomed to be an endless wasteland of sparsely populated ghetto intersparced with your occasional mall or club? *sigh*

I posted my condolences to Hank in the wrong thread. Here I go again....

Hank I'm really sorry to hear this. I've been referring people to you left and right for good apartments at good prices. I'm sorry it isn't working out

What will happen to SLU? I'd be willing to do a "branch campus" sort of thing if you're not planning on keeping it active.

Hey Hank, I'm sorry it didn't work out. You certainly did a great job putting it all together, and lots of people were able to call it home. It's an excellent build. It's a shame that the economy can't support this kind of thing at the moment.

Hopefully in the future, when things turn around, you or someone else could try again!

hmm..and I thought Hotels were a good idea. I think it may be a matter of advertising..dont' know..but I enjoy being there..I think they should put an "Apartments" catagory in the "Find" feature if it isn't already there.

I am sorry to hear that the MegaTower(s) didn't work out as you planned. It was(/They were) a significant build and concept I thought... something that was a definite landmark both when traveling and for the community simply due to its architectural footprint. I also considered it an "SL landmark" in terms of trying to be self-supporting for the purpose of making the USL self-sustaining financially rather than a charitable enterprise supported only by contributions and personal tier.

If this is going to affect the status of USL, please contact me as I would contribute some of my tier to keep at least that open.

What's going to happen to the library?

I'm curious as to why you think hotels are a good idea....

In real life hotels are used as a place for the weary traveller to rest while (s)he is in a geographic location removed from home.

In SL, since home is merely a mouse click and teleport away, what purpose would hotels serve?

The Library will live on wherever I go. It's not disappearing, just moving somewhere.

Well..just my experience as a newbie..I didn't know where to take a date. And I still do not have a premium account. Didn't necessarily want a monthly residence and I preferred to have where I went furnished for different surroundings and activities if you know what I mean..for one night or just a couple hours.

Hank,

Was any one tower able to achieve profitability? Was there synergy in building 3 builds as opposed to 1?

Heh heh... yeah, know exactly what you mean. Interesting idea.

Sorry to hear this news Hank.

MegaTower ^1 came the closest, but never achieved profitability. MegaTower ^2, even though it's a 2000fps simulator, was a dismal failure. MegaTower ^3, while not a tower, was only open a few weeks, but it was hard to even get people to sell stuff there for free.

The biggest thing is going to be the extra US$195 tier I added to expand MegaTower, but I can't do anything with because tiers are 1 months long. :\

I'm sorry to hear that this is coming to an end. You have put a lot of effort into it. Thanks for pursuing this project and for posting the information about it along the way. It has been interesting following the course of it and seeing how you went about managing the property.

Good luck with your future projects!

Wow! That is the second set of bad news this week.

First, Raphael Rutherford putting Paradise Island up for sale and now Hank and Megatowers.

Everyone can preach until they turn blue about the evils of the almighty L$, land prices, and SL business in general, but the cold reality is that unless there is some economic incentive for people like Hank and Raphael to spend countless hours developing content, there will always come a time when people will question why they are spending their time and money for nothing in return.

Now, I am not saying they do everything for money, far from that! They are both very nice gentlemen that have contributed greatly to the SL community, but I am sure that if at least they could see a little return on their investment, whether from an appreciating L$, land prices, rentals, or sales, they would be more motivated to continue spending the hours they do on improving the game experience for everyone.

Hank, Raphael, if I read you guys wrong, my sincere apologies. I have nothing but the outmost respect for you and your work.

- T -

> I am sure that if at least they could see a little return on their investment, whether from an appreciating L$, land prices, rentals, or sales, they would be more motivated to continue spending the hours they do on improving the game experience for everyone.

Yes and No. There is a game called Warcraft III, where you can create custom maps, with no permissions. Quite a few people take a lot of pleasure from creating custom maps and sharing them with the community.

However, a major difference between SL and Warcraft III is that Warcraft III does a lot of the hard stuff involved in creating a game for you, its fairly easy to create a game, and they're generally fun.

The reason that SL is very L$-oriented is that it is designed to be. It is a game based on socializing (clubs) and business (malls). This is not how it has to be but this is how it is designed to be.

Azelda

Awww! Say it ain't so, Hank! So sorry for the closure, your tower was the bestest place for newbs to get into SL...Thanks bunches, and here's to seeing many new creations coming from you in the future.

Sorry to hear about the closure hank, I will swing by this evening and pick up my stuff. Thanks for all your help and support we appreciated it.

Sincerely, Shadow

I'm sorry to hear this too Hank - it was an awesome build.

Sorry to hear about this, Hank.

Sorry to heat this Hank. It sucks because you tried to do something new with shopping in SL and instead all the open-air markets still flourish to no end.

Hank best of luck with your new projects buddy!