I heard a rumor once, and I have no idea how true it may be. But the rumor goes something like this: parking lots, beyond being ridiculously lucrative and turn-key businesses, are also fantastic money-laundering or tax-dodging opportunities. And so many of them are owned by shady characters, or shady companies. These types don't necessarily want to deal with things like processing credit cards, or getting into paper…
Tax-dodging seems plausible, but money-laundering seems like it would be tricky. The income is very consistent, and the buying a lot from an existing owner would be pricey. It is much better to buy something like an unprofitable nightclub. It doesn't raise any alarms when a nightclub goes from $300k/year to $1M/year in cash under new ownership. The same can't be said for a parking lot. Strip clubs are also pretty goo…
Actually, these things can happen. It's a bit anecdotal (then again, most of the "wisdom" I have to part from running a retail biz is) but no end of business brokers and fellow business owners talk about being cautions regarding taxes and reporting right around a change of ownership. Combined with the fact that people don't report as much as they should in the first place...
At least in California, the BOE and IRS and any other relevant agencies (ABC for alcohol, the banks used for funding, the city giving out business permits, etc.) like to pay special attention to these kinds of businesses. Even if the business is actually doing better, I was told to not deviate from the previous owner's numbers too much unless I have concrete proof of purchasing more than usual from easily traceable sources (so probably not the shady small warehouse store, but Costco Business and Sysco instead). I've seen a friend be audited because she wasn't reporting anywhere near what seemed right for the amount of groceries she was buying, and a former owner of another business because the new owner reported way more in sales for the same amount of business (only because the new owner was stupid enough to try to flip the business looking like it was in better shape in a year).
All that said, it's probably easier to eventually raise a nightclub's "profitability" than it is to do the same for a parking lot.