[hackerspaces] Rent?

[Sam Ley]

WOW I wish I was in some of your markets! The Phoenix Asylum in Boulder,
CO, pays $2774/mo for rent and utilities, which goes up to about $2900 when
you include internet and insurance. That is for a 2300 sq. ft. warehouse
space, heated (but not cooled) with two bay doors. It is a real piece of
shit, too. ;)

That comes out to about $14/sq.ft./yr, including the NNN (triple net),
which is actually quite good for the area, and our last property search
turned up nothing better (and we evaluated a LOT of possible sites).

Our model is to have a relatively small number of members(18-22), give them
their own space in addition to common area, and charge a lot - about $200
for one person getting 100 sq. ft. of "personal" area (just lines on the
floor), with scaled costs for multiple people sharing space, or getting
more than 100 sq. ft. for your own benches. Over the course of a year we
pass around $35k through our coffers, so the job of treasurer is extremely
important (and difficult). We are a federal S-Corp, and a Colorado State
Non-Profit Corporation (NOT 501c3, but we get some state benefits such as
access to cheaper liquor licenses for fundraisers). The good news is that
we've been "in the black" for 4 years now (knock on MDF). "profits" such as
they are, are used for development and equipment for the common area - no
one takes a payment or distribution from the org.

I'd love to be in a market with cheaper property - Boulder has a lot of
benefits and is a cool town, but it has almost no post-industrial
infrastructure, and land values are absurdly high.

-Sam



On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 9:20 AM, dosman <dosman at packetsniffers.org> wrote:

> Once we started growing and had close to enough people who said they'd be
> willing to pay dues we sublet a room out of an artists space for $400 a
> month and no utility costs (120 square feet with access to the rest of the
> building during our weekly public meetings). After that year we had enough
> people we rented a 1000 square foot commercial space. Our rent is like $584
> a month, I think our total monthly expenses are around $700 including rent.
> Our public liability insurance is $300 a year. Our membership dues of $40 a
> month from around 20 members usually covers the monthly expenses, a couple
> of us put in additional cash for utility deposits. Our periodic workshops
> provide a cushion for when memberships drop a little.
>
> We discussed allowing trades of services for memberships, but we decided
> against this. We have plenty of people who are not members who are regulars
> at our public meetings which we're totally cool with. But if someone wants
> full 24x7 access we feel it's reasonable for them to pay the same rate as
> the rest of us do to keep the lights on. We also support a reduced
> rate/starving hacker membership, but so far we don't have anyone who uses
> this. Occasionally we'll get folks who act like $40 a month is too much,
> but that's why we're open to the public one night a week (and other days
> when the space is occupied). Don't want to pay? That's cool, just hang out
> with us on Wednesdays.
>
> -dosman
>
> On Feb 14, 2013, at 12:55 AM, Derek Hubbard wrote:
>
> > That actually brings up a good question. What are people paying per
> month for rent or expenses? Here at CSpace in Oklahoma City, we're paying
> $450/mo for 5000sqft of warehouse space with a small kitchen and two
> bathrooms. The space is, for now, rather raw. We plan on improving that.
> Our other expenses bring costs up to an estimated $700/mo.
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 9:49 PM, B F <bakmthiscl at gmail.com> wrote:
> > You don't say how much you need to cover the rent.
> >
> > On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 4:36 PM, asbesto <asbesto at freaknet.org> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > We have 1 (one) euro in our bank account right now. We dunno how
> > > we're going to pay the next month :)
> > >
> > > so, NOTHING works here in the center of Sicilia, the deep south
> > > of our poor Italy...
> > >
> > >
> > > (p.s. someone wanna help us?)
> > >
> > > http://museo.freaknet.org/en/donazioni/
> > >
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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