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
- Federal St at Carrington (OUT of running as of meeting 08/10/2011)
- http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/off/2533089766.html
- http://maps.google.com/?q=loc%3A+Federal+st+North+at+Carrington+Pgh+Pa+US
- Calls made: Non yet.
- Doug: I drove around this space on Sat 8/6. If I was looking at the right space:
- 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
- Ellsworth at Lehigh Ave (OUT of running as of meeting 08/10/2011)
- From Craigslist: http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/off/2524652861.html
- http://maps.google.com/?q=loc%3A+Ellsworth+Ave+at+Lehigh+Ave+Pittsburgh+PA+US
- Calls made: Non yet.
- Doug: I looked at this driving by on Sat 8/6.
- 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.
- Location pruning:
- 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.
- Location update: