Guest safety should be of primary interest to all innkeepers. Whether you "know" an area is safe or not, your guests arrive wit htheir own experiences. I find it prudent to treat each inn as if it's in a "dangerous" area so your guests have comfort in their safety.
* Put locks on all exterior doors, and keep them locked at least at night if not also during the day.
* Install exterior lighting in the parking lot and along the paths your guests will take to get into the inn at night.
* Hang window coverings, giving guests as much privacy as they want, as well as light control.
* Guestroom doors should not only have locking doorknobs but also privacy bolts. A guest should be able to lock their door when they are there or gone, and to have extra privacy with the deadbolt.

I know of some inns that do have burglar alarms, so don't hesitate to do that at your inn if you think it would make a difference for your guests.

Hmmmmm ... what a quandry. You have the opportunity to get in "on the ground floor" before gentrification raises the real estate value but the flipside is this. What if the urban revitalization stops short of your neighborhood?

Tough call.

Since I'm not a gambling man, I'd err on the conservative side and pass on this building.

If you're serious about this location, at least take the time to research what you're getting into. Go to the local police station and ask for crime statistics relating to the area you're in.

What sort of crimes took place in that neighborhood? How frequently did these crimes occur? How does criminal activity in this area compare to the municipal average?

If this neighborhood is a high crime area, I'd stay away. Even if you're brave enough to live in this neighborhood, will a B&B in such an area attract and retain guests? And even if you can keep guests secure within your facility - what sort of risk will their cars face?

Greetings from Yellow Brick Road. When we first got into this business more than 20 years ago most B&Bs were located in inner cities. They were converted rooming houses and apartment buildings. Those innkeepers got the property cheap and put a lot of sweat equity into them to tranform slum dwellings into rentable bed and breakfast rooms.

Security is a concern, as you suggested. But it's not the only concern, and probably should added to all the other concerns that may pursuade you not to undertake this project. It can be more costly than you think, and take longer than you ever dreamed. The community you are considering should have a plan for the area, and it should be locked in concrete and your property should be included in the plan to take advantage of what would be available to you. Find out where the big money is coming from too; that will give you an idea of realistic timeline. Some of these projects take two or three decades to complete. Discuss all your concerns with the agency that is overseeing the project to determine if the B&B is a good fit with their plans. Othewise you' ll just wind up fighting them.

You need to be very careful before you decide to follow the pioneer innkeepers. You said the property was on the edge of a redevelopment area; you need to know if it is in the redevelopment area or not. Maps should be available; redevelopment areas offer tax advantages and someitmes marketing assistance. Secondly, you need to figure out whether or not the B&B will be attractive to visitors once it's built. Check the general plan for the redevelopment area to find out what people will be using/working there (office buildings, for example, might not be ideal neighbors). How will you market the area???

A second factor to consider is that renovations typically over run budgets by 100 or 200 percent. Do you run the risk of getting partly through the project and running out of money? Can you get any kind of loan to finance your renovations???

Finally, as we've seen over the years, the presence of bed and breakfast properties normally facilitates improvements in blighted communities. I can cite Long Beach and San Francisco, CA as good examples of this. Early B&B innkeepers did well when they finally retired and sold.

Good luck with this project and feel free to email me privately if you have any additional questions. bobbizane@julianweb.com