2010 Location Search

Motivation

Gangplank will be moving locations within the next few months. This move will mean a lot more space for gangplank, yet further fluidity to that space. What this means for HSL will be the same or less permanent space for our tools and resources. Our goal has of course been to acquire tools available and ready to use 24/7. It is the current boards attitude that any move should be an upward move, not a sideways or backwards. This, along with the amazing growth in our membership and some interesting opportunities, has led to a search for a home for HSL.

Capability

The 5013 documentation financials were great for the board to be able to estimate our feasibility over the next few years. The end result of those preparations were an attitude that at a $50 membership at space of around $1500 a month (a conservative price including utils+insurance for the PHX region) would be impossible with less than 25 paying members. In addition coming in under that price might allow leasing/taking out loans for more expensive tools to increase further membership growth. We have so far been unsuccessful in securing grants. This has led to looking into partnerships to bring that initial cost down for the first year or two until tools are available and membership is then secure.

Options

House Behind New Gangplank Location

Summary

Cost: $1250 a month currently, talk him down to say 600-800, would have to renovate in our spare time.
Size: 900sq ft
Location: 242 S. Wall Street Chandler AZ

Pros and Cons

• Even deeper in Chandler so not as central Tempe/Phoenix as many have preferred.
• All by ourselves. No sublease.
• Communal facilities literally 20ft from new Gangplank location.
• Traditional busted hackerspace feel.
• Group trusts and likes Derek and the Gangplank community.

Innovations Chandler

File:Location-Innovations1.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zgiles/tags/innovationschandler/

Summary

Cost: $833 or $1600
Size: 500 or 1000sq feet
Location: 145 S 79th street Chandler Az

Pros and Cons

• Less in Chandler, but still quite within Chandler.
• Some communal facilities, conference room for 22, several flop rooms, cafe area, lounge areas, etc.
• Free insurance(~$2-4k in value).
• Free scheduled access to advanced tools such as laser cutter(which will bring in members)from David's space in there.
• More sterile and very entrepreneurial and business-y vs a typical artists/hacker model.
• Temporary Option(1-3 years)
• No down payment.
• Free wi-fi.
• Available to rent within facilities(free to start)
  • wetlab,gas,hoods
  • Fume Extraction (acid etch IC's like all those Defcon talks you've seen)
  • Cryogenics Lab(you know like liquid nitrogen!)
  • Bio Lab - Centrifuge, etc.
  • Dark Room

D.A. Thierren's Downtown Art Building

Summary

Location: 718 N. 4th St

Space #1

Cost: $790
Size: 970 SF
Description: The large west end room, mini split AC, small side window, 36" front door, large double back door, private bathroom.

Space #2

Cost: $450
Size: 485 SF
Description: The small room, AC or EVAP, no bathroom, sink optional, large storefront window, double rear door.

Space #3

Cost: $1100
Size: 1455 SF
Description: Space #1 and #2 combined. Private bathroom and AC as above.

Space #4

Cost: $525-$590
Size: 625 SF
Description: Large front entrance, double door rear entrance, evap or AC, $525, if you share the bathroom with the building, $590 if you don't.

Pros and Cons

• CAM for First Friday, shared electricity, etc.
• Move in cost is 1st and last month, plus a utility/clean-up/late deposit.
• Month of May for free while you paint, wire, build or whatever. building is as-is, no leaks, and we will make improvements as we go. We'll get cooling in ASAP. New rear double doors will be later, as rent comes in.
• 1M in insurance necessary.
• Downtown PHX arts district area.
• Communal facilities-outside area for performance and chilling - inside area for workshops and classrooms
• More of an artsy style hacker space.
• Some reports that David is a strong personality.
• Frankly, in some ways, we're in competition with DA. We're our own incubator with our own model. Either competition or cooperation with the other artists in there.

PHX Arts District Location

Summary

Cost: ?
Size: ?
Location: ?

Pros and Cons

• Quoted as "far lower than 2k a month".
• Downtown PHX arts district.
• More artsy - The artist style hackerspace.

Ethos

Start Small

A lot of the hackerspace how to's caution to start small and I personally subscribe to that idea. If we could just use someones garage and start compiling tools people could visualize what their member fees get them. 24/7 is also rather ambitious to start with. Many of the existing popular hacker spaces aren't 24/7 and they're proven and up and running. An interesting concept I saw was a doorman twitter account which people could follow at any point in the day to see if a keyholder was present and therefore the doors were open.

Go Big

The infrastructure pattern.

Things I would like to see in a leased space include:

• Public Transport
• Ventilation
• Garage Space
• Kitchen/Cafe Space
• Lounge Space.

I know others have expressed a 'safe location' as something that is important, but here too some of the hackerspace how-to's recommend explicitly looking for sketchy and therefor cheap neighborhoods. We also want the space to be friendly to all night traffic and all night machine noise.

Ideas

When submitting our ASU EAP 2k proposal, the director of that program mentioned looking into finding municipalities in the area who currently may have more real estate than they know what to do with and maybe interest in hosting this type of 'incubator' concept. He also mentioned contacting Lodestar, an ASU lead community nonprofit resource, for assistance. I have since contacted them and ended up speaking with Robert Duea who encouraged us to seek out city planners and city managers. He seemed interested in our concept and went so far as to mention that his community of Surprise was indeed looking at courting tech startups and that we may fall into that.--so far no contact returned from cities/munis

Help Us!

Picking a long-term home can be difficult. On the one hand, there is the set of current members who are attending meetings. On the other hand there are all those other people who you would love to have come attend meetings, but who may be hindered by the current location.

Surveying current attendees includes a selection bias: Many people currently attending may want to keep the current location because it's convenient. Meanwhile there may be a good number of people who do not currently attend, but would if the location were different.

Decide what the long-term goal should be and try to get a location that fits that. The downside is that, short-term, this may end up being a poor location for people currently attending. The upside is that the group is better positioned for its long-term goals.

• Please fill out this Survey to help us determine the best location.

• If you think you know a good location please fill out this survey.