2010 Location Search
Motivation
Gangplank will be relocating within the next few months. While this move will mean a lot more space for gangplank, the space HeatSync Labs will occupy at the new gangplank location will either remain the same or become less permanent for our tools and resources. Since the primary objective of our nonprofit organization is to acquire tools we can have available and ready to use 24/7, the presiding Board of Directors feel that any move should represent a step forward, not 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 HeatSync Labs.
Capability
Filing the 5013 documentation financials really allowed the presiding board to estimate the feasibility of our organization over the next few years. These preparations and figures showed that assuming a conservative price including both utilities and insurance for the Phoenix region, HeatSync Labs would need a bare minimum of 25 members at a $50 per month membership in order to afford a space of approximately $1500 a month. Without at least 25 paying members, it would be impossible for HeatSync Labs to afford a reasonable space.
Moreover, the aforementioned price is a conservative estimate and does not include the additional possibility of leasing and/or taking out loans in order to afford better equipment/tools for our members and future membership growth. Thus far, we have been unsuccessful in securing grants, but we are looking into partnerships to minimize the initial cost until tools are available and membership is secure.
Options
House Behind New Gangplank Location
Summary
Residential house that was modified to be a hair salon.
Cost: Negotiations are at $1250 a month currently, but the Board of Directors do feel that it would be worth paying $600-$800 per month for it. The owner proposed the price of $1000 per month as long as HeatSync Labs renovated the building to his specifications.
Size: 900 square feet
Location: 242 S. Wall Street Chandler AZ
Pros and Cons
- Con: Located in downtown Chandler so it may not be as central to Tempe/Phoenix as many prefer
- Lease agreement would be all by ourselves, no sublease
- Pro: Communal facilities (power, meeting rooms, etc.) 20 feet from new Gangplank location
- Pro/Con: Traditional busted hackerspace feel.
- Pro: Close proximity to Derek and the Gangplank community, established trust
- Con: Leasing this space would require renovations on our behalf
Innovations Chandler
Summary
Room in a former Intel Building off the 101 and Chandler, renovated by the City of Chandler to be developed as a small business incubator.
Cost: $833 or $1600
Size: 500 or 1000sq feet
Location: 145 S 79th street Chandler Az
Pros and Cons
- Pro/Con: Less in Chandler, but still quite within Chandler
- Pro: Some communal facilities, conference room for 22, several flop rooms, cafe area, corridor lounge areas, etc.
- Pro: Free insurance (~$2-4k in value)
- Pro: Free scheduled access to David's advanced tools (ie. laser cutter), which will attract more members
- Pro/Con: More sterile environment, entrepreneurial and business-y vs. the typical artists/hacker model
- Pro: Temporary Option (1-3 years)
- Pro: No down payment
- Pro: Free wi-fi
- Pro: Available to rent within facilities (free to start)
- Wetlabs, 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
- Pro: CAM for First Friday, shared electricity, etc.
- Pro/Con: Move in cost is 1st and last month, plus a utility/clean-up/late deposit
- Pro/Con: 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
- Pro/Con: 1M in insurance necessary
- Pro: Downtown PHX arts district area
- Pro: Communal facilities-outside area for performance and chilling - inside area for workshops and classrooms
- Pro/Con: More of an artsy style hacker space
- Con: Some reports that David is a strong personality
- Con: Frankly, in some ways, HeatSync Labs is in competition with DA. We are our own incubator with our own model. This could result in either competition or cooperation with the other artists there.
PHX Arts District Location
Summary
Cost: ?
Size: ?
Location: ?
Pros and Cons
- Pro: Quoted as "far lower than 2k a month", unverified
- Pro: Downtown Phoenix arts district
- Pro/Con: 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 hackerspace 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.