We need a place

We need a place where we can go and work on these projects in an environment that stimulates creativity and motivation. The shop will provide a work area, resources, and knowledge to help people with their projects.

Brainstorm!

Possible means of obtaining said shop:

1. Become a for-profit "professional" Make Shop. See: http://www.techshop.ws/
   • See We need income section.
2. Become non-profit organization and find projects that are a good source of income to pay for the shop.

Moneyz

How much can everybody contribute a month? We need to know this before we go into details about the ideal make shop venue.

• Gregabyte $50/mo
• omegix $100/mo
• saratheneale $100/mo
• I-MOD $100/mo
• brimstone $200/mo
• strages $300/mo maybe more

Total: ~$850/mo.

Locations

Us Requesting Space

• Have posted to the Huntsville livejournal community
• Have posted to Craigslist

Potential Spots

• flagr.com map of location scouting: http://www.flagr.com/maps/makeshophsv

• $700 / 2700ft² - Commercial Building on 1 Acre Lot
  • Google Maps
• $350 / 400ft² - Office Style
  • Google Maps
• $450/mo
• fps paintball has some office space they can sublet. The main leaser is waiting on input as to how much space we need and what we're looking to pay.
• Bombed out pink gas station on old monrovia. Need to contact McCormick realty: 837 8220
• Office space available in the Game Over strip mall. $1600 a month. 1550sqft, 2 bathroom, 1 office.
• Madison Bonded Warehouse
  • Flyer
  • can get 1000 sq/ft, for $250/month
  • The facility is NOT climate controlled.
  • Pic's JimShoe Took
• Old Star99 building, flagged on flagr: 536-3345
  • $1500/month with 3year lease
    • He sounded old, and maybe if we talk to him he might come down on the lease lengh and cost
  • 3200sq/ft
  • Has some small offices
  • 3 air units
  • 4 restrooms
  • few hundred sq/ft back yard fenced in.

Questions to ask Leasers

• Access times? (prefer 24/7)
• Any power tool restrictions? (noise, size)
• Any rules on building interior structures? (such as walls, lofts)
• Any rules prohibiting installation of internet? (more a question of who would install to that location)
• Min sqft purchase requirement?
• What security is available? Guards? Fence? Yard Dogs? Moat?
• Is it climate controlled?
• Lease period?
• Utilities?
• Are there bathrooms?

Progress

• 06/06/2007: Opticron's mother is a real estate agent and is asking her contact for info on something that's sub-$1000 a month with 1K+ sq ft.
• 06/28/2007: Sent an e-mail to the LUNA mailing list explaining who we are and asking the locals if they had or knew of any space they'd be willing to donate or cheaply rent for our cause. No great details, but I expect some curious folk to reply.
• 07/16/2007: Added the Leeman Ferry place listed above and the place at 200 Jordan Ln to the MakeShop Scouting flagr map linked in the side bar. Brimstone called the number on the front of the 200 Jordan Ln location but hasn't heard back yet.
• 02/16/2008: Field trip to the hideous pink building on Old Monrovia. We "did not" enter it. Lots of space. Also, lots of plywood doors, and wires hanging from the ceiling. Omegix called with no answer. There is a for sale sign out front. I suspect there's a large issue with the wiring and building.
• 02/16/08: Field trip to a commercial property spot of suites. Go to the intersection of Enterprise and University: Go straight. There's a series of suites on the left. Talked to the owner: Johnny Evans who said he had one suite left and he'd give it to us for about $1300 a month with 1 year lease. If we don't grab this soon, it'll be gone. Not sure what the square footage is. Judging by the suite next door- it's about 4 times the size of the narrows living room. We need to find 13 people that can reliably contribute $100 a month for a year. Probably more since we need utilities and stuff. Someone mentioned offering to split a T1 connection with Game Over- the suite next door. We told Johnny it was an Amateur Inventor's Group/ think tank or something.

Things to remember

• No matter where we decide to rent, make sure we have a real estate/property lawyer evaluate and negotiate the lease. Commercial leases are highly mutable---we have a lot of say in our liabilities, but a lawyer is really needed to make sure we aren't getting screwed.
• Essay on Private club legal status regarding membership and equal access and whatnot: [1]
• Site about private clubs: [2]

Interior

Walls

Potentially we will be selecting a warehouse where we are allowed to build our own enclosure. The place will likey want something easily removed, while we will want something that is sturdy enough to fall into and not knock down. A quick google search turned up this:

• How to Build an Interior Wall
• More How to Build a Wall, includes Furring tips
• What about a fence, like for a back yard?

Since we'll be in a warehouse, and responsible for our Utilities use, it's likely that we'll have to build a double wall, with insulation on the inside. Also taken into account will be inserting structures to hold the weight of a window unit air conditioner.