4 ms·

Rents have gone up, pricing out many makerspaces and hackerspaces and pushing some members out of the locality of the space they are a member of. When this rev

by posguy 4y ago

Rents have gone up, pricing out many makerspaces and hackerspaces and pushing some members out of the locality of the space they are a member of. When this revenue shortfall occurs a space will likely close, unless the membership of the space can close the gap. Running a nonprofit community space is hard, your constantly trying to grow membership to cover costs while experiencing churn amongst your members and their use cases for the space. Many makerspaces/hackerspaces are founded by an idealistic person, and when that idealism (and the persons ability to cover the gap in rent) runs out, the space will close.

pontifier 4y ago
That's exactly why I decided to take the makerspace I started and move across the country. I bought a 220,000 sqft building with high hopes of never ever running into the kinds of problems I was having renting. Then the pandemic hit, and the city officials decided to play stupid games, and 2 1/2 years later I still can't turn the power on, the waterjet is still packed away, almost everything else has been stolen, and I'm in the middle of a lawsuit to try to actually use the building I bought.
- YeBanKo 4y ago
  Wow... I assume this happened in the US? And then we are going to see articles, that manufacturing is dying in the US and there are no qualified or interested people and how it needs to change asap. Can you share more from your experience?
  - xrd 4y ago
    www.ProVolt.org Looks like moved to Arkansas. I would also be fascinated to hear about this story. I just moved to Lakeland, FL and they have an incredible maker space that it a non profit. It's mind blowing how good it is. And sad that my hometown of Portland would never be able to build something like that now.
    - YeBanKo 4y ago
      Looks like they were in Provo, UT and could not find a suitable place there. I expected that they had moved form somewhere in the West Coast, like Oregon or California.
    - pontifier 4y ago
      It's a super long story. I may be cursed when it comes to trying to interact with local politics. I had been renting a space, but the owner wanted more than we were paying, so I tried to move into a house I owned. We were there for about a year while I was trying to acquire a 65,000 sqft abandoned jail that was owned by the city. They tore it down instead of letting us buy it, and told us we couldn't run a "business" in the house I owned. So then we were stuck in about 400sqft renting for a couple of years until I just couldn't keep paying the rent. fast forward to finding a huge warehouse in Arkansas! https://youtu.be/qdkLzioUiAE https://youtu.be/qdkLzioUiAE The price was so low, I thought it was a typo. I called the agent who confirmed it was accurate, and I immediately told my dad "We're moving to Arkansas!!" I bought the building, and thought my troubles would be over with no landlord to worry about. The zoning seemed fine, and the planning commission even approved most of what I wanted to do. But then I ran into hostility from the city zoning and inspection department. I have had so many problems trying to fight the city. I can't get permits for anything. I can't repair the building. They keep changing their story about what is needed, and I'm not the only one. The city seems intent on running everyone out of town. I know of at least 3 other major business efforts that either never got running, or shut down because they couldn't get through the red tape here. Just today, a potential crypto-mining facility was denied at the planning meeting because some people from the church across the street were worried that it would be too loud... not that it was too loud, or couldn't be made quieter, just outright denied because of a worry about noise. Side note - This is in a well insulated building where they used to run newspaper printing presses, and there is an active railroad track right next door. They've been delayed since December of last year, and this was the last straw for them. They're leaving town. I don't give up so easy, and I'm currently in the process of suing the city because of these delay tactics.
      - YeBanKo 4y ago
        Based on you blog the city you moved to is Pine Bluff in AK with a population just short of 50k. Have you tried showing up at public hearing and gathering some support from the public?
PeterisP 4y ago
With work-from-home reducing the demand for office space, would not we expect rent for such spaces to go down ?

by posguy 4y ago

pontifier 4y ago

That's exactly why I decided to take the makerspace I started and move across the country. I bought a 220,000 sqft building with high hopes of never ever running into the kinds of problems I was having renting. Then the pandemic hit, and the city officials decided to play stupid games, and 2 1/2 years later I still can't turn the power on, the waterjet is still packed away, almost everything else has been stolen, and I'm in the middle of a lawsuit to try to actually use the building I bought.

YeBanKo 4y ago
Wow... I assume this happened in the US? And then we are going to see articles, that manufacturing is dying in the US and there are no qualified or interested people and how it needs to change asap. Can you share more from your experience?
- xrd 4y ago
  www.ProVolt.org Looks like moved to Arkansas. I would also be fascinated to hear about this story. I just moved to Lakeland, FL and they have an incredible maker space that it a non profit. It's mind blowing how good it is. And sad that my hometown of Portland would never be able to build something like that now.
  - YeBanKo 4y ago
    Looks like they were in Provo, UT and could not find a suitable place there. I expected that they had moved form somewhere in the West Coast, like Oregon or California.
  - pontifier 4y ago
    It's a super long story. I may be cursed when it comes to trying to interact with local politics. I had been renting a space, but the owner wanted more than we were paying, so I tried to move into a house I owned. We were there for about a year while I was trying to acquire a 65,000 sqft abandoned jail that was owned by the city. They tore it down instead of letting us buy it, and told us we couldn't run a "business" in the house I owned. So then we were stuck in about 400sqft renting for a couple of years until I just couldn't keep paying the rent. fast forward to finding a huge warehouse in Arkansas! https://youtu.be/qdkLzioUiAE https://youtu.be/qdkLzioUiAE The price was so low, I thought it was a typo. I called the agent who confirmed it was accurate, and I immediately told my dad "We're moving to Arkansas!!" I bought the building, and thought my troubles would be over with no landlord to worry about. The zoning seemed fine, and the planning commission even approved most of what I wanted to do. But then I ran into hostility from the city zoning and inspection department. I have had so many problems trying to fight the city. I can't get permits for anything. I can't repair the building. They keep changing their story about what is needed, and I'm not the only one. The city seems intent on running everyone out of town. I know of at least 3 other major business efforts that either never got running, or shut down because they couldn't get through the red tape here. Just today, a potential crypto-mining facility was denied at the planning meeting because some people from the church across the street were worried that it would be too loud... not that it was too loud, or couldn't be made quieter, just outright denied because of a worry about noise. Side note - This is in a well insulated building where they used to run newspaper printing presses, and there is an active railroad track right next door. They've been delayed since December of last year, and this was the last straw for them. They're leaving town. I don't give up so easy, and I'm currently in the process of suing the city because of these delay tactics.
    - YeBanKo 4y ago
      Based on you blog the city you moved to is Pine Bluff in AK with a population just short of 50k. Have you tried showing up at public hearing and gathering some support from the public?

PeterisP 4y ago

With work-from-home reducing the demand for office space, would not we expect rent for such spaces to go down ?