August 2011 Search

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Notes on our search for a potential new space. Organized by location/neighborhood/area

Oakland
  • Several properties for lease/rent along Melwood avenue near the Pittsburgh Filmmakers.
    • Calls made: See below.
    • Error creating thumbnail: File missing
      - Between Pgh Filmmakers and Baum Blvd, same side as Filmmakers.
    • Error creating thumbnail: File missing
      - Between Pgh Filmmakers and Baum Blvd, opposite side from Filmmakers.
    • Doug: I drove down this road on Sat 8/6.
Google Street View goes all the way down Melwood, can be used for context, but *is* a bit dated.
Several of the properties are listed as for sale.
Buses: Not far from Baum Blvd
Parking: street parking not too bad.
At least one place comes with off-street parking.
Food: Not too far from various fast food places on Baum. Nice Thai restaurant on Craig St is close too.
    • Ed: Jeff and I drove down this road Sun 8/7
there seem to be many builds on this street that are empty
We could ask the PGH Filmmakers what they think of the area: they have a lot of nice equipment going in and out pretty regularly
Looked like a good set of candidate locations
    • Error creating thumbnail: File missing
      -- same side as Filmmakers.
      • Doug spoke with Lars Olander (sp?) 2011.09.14 3:10pm
First floor of this space is ~6,200sq ft. They're asking $2,400/month, so its definitely out of our price range.
Lars suggested a space they have in Lawrenceville (see below)


Northside
Buses: service goes up Federal. Coming from the East, folks would have to change buses in downtown.
Parking: Has a nice street level parking area. Probably get 5 cars off the street.
Not a great neighborhood, probably about the same as what we have now.
Food: Not far from Max's Allegheny Tavern, Legends of the Northside, other Northside places. Fast food is not far, but not close either.
Shadyside
I did not see an obvious commercial space. I did see what might be a residence that had been carved up into apartments.
Ellsworth Ave is partially closed for construction.
Buses: Near the Busway in East Liberty, near Shadyside.
Parking: There is little parking available, two maybe three cars _if_ the yard I saw is part of it. Street parking was. as to be expected in Shadyside, jammed up.
    • Ed: Jeff and I drove in this area
It looks really pricy. I doubt we could find a place at the right rate here.
We couldn't find the place mentioned, but we did find another place:
  • Ellsworth Ave at Spahr
    • It was "Articulation" as seen on Google street view. Probably big enough but zero dedicated parking.
    • Met some friendly Shadyside residents who called to us with the local greeting of "MOVE ASSHOLES!!!"
    • Parking: none really; small lot nearby but it looks to be reserved.
    • Right on a bus stop, if I'm reading Google street view correctly
    • I snapped a photo; "FOR SALE (four one two two eight one zero one zero zero) David Glickman www.grubb-ellis.com"
Lawrenceville
  • 3703 Butler Street
    • old location of "Sugar Boutique" - recently empty
    • didn't copy contact info
  • 3701 Butler Street
    • old location of "Divertido" - moved down Butler, nearer the Doughboy
    • didn't copy contact info
  • 3707 Butler Street
    • several floors
    • might be small; hard to tell through windows; recently they re-did the inside
    • didn't copy contact info
  • 3520 Charlotte St, Lawrenceville
    • Suggested to Doug as possibility by Lars Olander (see above)
    • ~6,000sq ft. Asking ~$1,500/month. Don't know how 'rough' it is inside.
    • Doug told Lars that we'd send someone around to suss out the location, see how it works with parking, bus, etc.
Considerations
  • At our current basement of SoHo place, our rent includes:
    • Insurance
    • Heat
    • Water/Sewage
    • Internet
Meetings
  • 08/10/2011 - Alex, Laura, Doug, Eli, Gabe, Mandy, Matt
    • Location pruning:
      • Northside location out of the running because: not bigger enough, neighborhood not better, bus transfer in downtown needed
      • Shadyside location out of the running because: lack of parking
      • Melwood location(s): Doug to call and get info on rental prices
      • Lawrenceville location(s): Laura to call and and get info on rental prices
      • Matt/Mandy to look at locations in their area. (ed. note: there are warehouse spaces around the East End Food Coop...)
      • Ed (via text messages to Doug): Contact Community organizations (no one volunteered to do this)
    • Goal of search brought in to focus by Eli (paraphrased): We're not looking to move, we're looking to make sure we're not missing out on a really awesome space.
    • Moving will incur a significant cost of money, time and member's energy.
    • No one at the meeting would volunteer to actually move the shop: "I'll be sick that day, week, month" was a common sentiment.
    • Interest in staying at the current space dramatically increased when Matt explained what we're getting for our rent (see 'Considerations' above)
    • A LOT of interest/ideas for how the current space could be improved, esp. in terms of space utilization and hammocks.
    • Strong interest in having a tech-heavy 'garage sale'/'flea market'. And in using the adjacent parking lot. However, no one volunteered to locate the parking lot's owner(s) for permission/arrangement.
  • 09/14/2011 - Eli, Logan, Laura, Matt, Mandy, Scott, Doug
    • Location update:
      • See above - Space on Melwood is too expensive. Space in Lawrenceville is closer, but still too expensive.
      • Consensus is to stay in the space until we obviously outgrow it.
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