Rent a Greenhouse for a One Year Return-on-Investment

Rent a Greenhouse for a One Year Return-on-Investment
– by Colle and Phyllis Davis

Rent a greenhouse instead of building one for your commercial aquaponics system and get a one year return on your investment.

In Southern California (obviously, a biased sampling) the cost to lease a greenhouse of 25,000 to 75,000 sq ft is from US$1,500 to US$3,000 TOTAL.

Let’s do the math and see how this investment pencil’s out:

A very solid rule of thumb on the cost of a PFAS Module which includes the grow trays, the fish tanks and all of the related lumber, pipe, liner and the PFAS Kit, is US$2,100 per Module. A 10,000 sq ft installation will contain 28 to 32 Modules depending on the specifics of the layout.

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Grab a Pencil and Let’s Do the Math

Multiply the cost per Module US$2,100 times the maximum number of Modules 32 and your install cost becomes US$67,000. Then comes the greenhouse. [This cost is normally THE most expensive part of an aquaponics installation.] Let’s use a three year lease and figure the ROI on the yearly maximum rate of US$2,000 for a 10,000 sq ft greenhouse or US$24,000.

You still have labor, electricity, fish, seeds and misc and these total approximately US$80,000 per year. These figures are San Diego, California figures, California labor costs, San Diego Gas and Electric power costs and the local water district water costs (not inexpensive).

First Year Expenses (Averages)

Your first year investment will include the cost of building the Modules	US$67,000
The total operating  costs	US$80,000
Rental on the greenhouse	$24,000
First year total	US$171,000

The gross income based on a mixed production of both greens and fruiting plants such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and beans is approximately US$185,000 of income per year resulting in a net-net income of approximately US$80,000 per year.  Specialty or custom ordered vegetables dramatically impact this figure on the high side. For example if all basil were grown the income would almost quadruple to over US$600,000. Cucumbers are even better producers, but remember, these specialty crops and are NOT high volume crops.

These figures show a total payback over slightly over two years. US$80,000 x 2 years = US$160,000. Oh, wait, the initial capital investment was less then US$100,000 so the real payback is in a little over ONE YEAR.

Now look at the third year numbers. There are operating costs and rental costs, that’s it. The output has increased approximate 20% as the system ages and cures so using the initial income of US$185,000 and not the US$220,000 (the 20% increase) it will really be producing,  your US$80,000 per year (or US$116,000 with the increase in production) is now pure profit. Almost enough for some people to live on comfortably.

Contact us today for specifics, but first read Commercial Aquaponics and have two items is place, 1) your money or your investors money to cover the project’s cost, 2) a location to build your PFAS Modules so you can be in business in less than six months.  Remember, we even train your operators, guarantee our systems and are here to help.