Gas Station to Become Vineyard

The Westlake Village Inn will turn the former gas station site on the corner of Agoura Road and Lakeview Canyon Road into a vineyard. See: Hotels. The economics of this conversion are interesting. It is an axiom of real estate that property should go to the "highest and best use." In economic terms that typically means the use that provides the largest return on investment, or ROI.

It is hard to imagine that an agricultural use like a vineyard would produce a greater return than a gas station. I don't remember any lines of customers forming up at vineyards in the past. But, clearly, this is a whole new day. For the Westlake Village Inn, the vineyard may well be a more valuable asset to their property than a gas station or mini mart. Staying at an Inn near a vineyard is a more attractive prospect than staying at an Inn behind a gas station. The property will also provide a venue for wine tasting and weddings or other gatherings.

Perhaps it is also a harbinger of fundamental changes in the economy to come. Places that are attractive for people to gather or view do not always produce the maximum ROI for their owners. Political battles are often waged to keep property owners from turning their attractive property into a less attractive commercial enterprise. Here, an unattractive commercial enterprise will be supplanted by an attractive place - a garden, more or less. If we can have economic success by making our communities more attractive, then everyone wins.