[hackerspaces] Rent?

[dosman]

Some additional things. When we sublet that single room, that location was in a perfect location right down town with easy bus, bicycle, and walking access for a lot of people. I think that greatly helped us grow in the beginning. However we immediately started searching for another space when it became obvious we were growing beyond that location. We could have taken over the whole building after the first year (actually a house rezoned for commercial use) as the art space was vacating at the end of their lease, but we couldn't afford $1200 a month for rent.

We spent around 6 months searching and actually enlisted a real-estate agent one of our members knew and finally found our current location which had enough space and was cheap enough. It was a leap though as the expenses were more than our regular dues income, but a few of us agreed to just make up the difference until memberships covered it. We never had to put in extra money though. However, it's well outside of the city downtown area and no longer accessible by bus or bicycle for those members who relied on that access. Our treasurer negotiated with the landlord to get our move-in rent rate for 3 years as we renew our lease yearly so we know we won't have a rent hike for another year and a half if we stay here. One of the reasons we got our space so cheap (probably the cheapest commercial space in the city) is that we caught them in the middle of remodeling. We just said, stop putting money into the space, we'll finish some of the work, and they liked that idea. We love our current space (half way into our second year), but it's already getting crowded again on public nights. We are already looking for a place back in the downtown area.

One thing that has greatly helped us is our public outreach and working with other groups in town. There's a local children's science museum we do periodic "bug-bot" workshops with and other groups we've worked with. That has already opened the door to some possible assistance from the city on a larger location closer to our cities downtown area. That's a long way out yet but we're keeping our eyes on the horizon.

-dosman