Scouting
May 12th Progress.
I took these last week while I was in there.
Looks like the elevrician is going to start this week and we’ll be ready for inspections next week sometime!
We didn’t quite make it to our “Cinco de Mayo” open-house idea, but if we make it in there soon, all will be forgotten.
A Conference Room and a Kitchen
The Conference room is from another office that Jeff Bogart had done. I was skeptical about a full-wall of glass so close to the reception area, so Jeff gave me a phone number, and an address to go to.
Geoff and I took an hour to drive out there and my suspicions were debunked. The glass works great. (We also got an idea of how big the new conference room will be!)
The Kitchen is from Medina Cigar. They just opened a few weeks ago, and I thought their kitchen was nice for an office environment.
Tyler it is!
So after a few weeks of hunting/looking, we settled on Tyler Village.
(:: insert fanfare ::)
We felt that the overall direction of the developers and community were in line with what we were looking for. Geoff and I see this as being one of the next hot-spots in Cleveland, so we put it all together and started working on getting plans to build the space.
In other news, I got a call from a reporter for Crain’s Cleveland today. They were very interested in talking about the impending move, and about relocating to Cleveland. We talked for about an hour, and I’m excited to see what it is they find to write.
So…now the fun part starts!
More Scouting with Sandy Coakley
In our search for a spot to call home, we connected with Sandy Coakley of Coakley Real Estate. He knows the Near West Side of Cleveland pretty well, so we had him show us a few things. We’d seen property with him before, but wanted to see a few things in the daylight. Here were a few that didn’t work for us, but were nice spaces anyways.
These were smaller than we were looking for, but once you get out there, it’s easy to ’stop by’ and take a look at things in, and out of your initial parameters. You never know what gems you’ll find!
Space Hunting with Rose Strauss
A quick breakfast meeting had Geoff and I off to meet with Rose Strauss. She’s been in the Mid-Town real estate game for a long time. This was one of the properties that we found and REALLY liked.
It was about 2,500sq and priced at only $900.00 a month!
We’d have signed on the spot, but the space had a few flaws we couldn’t overlook.
#1: It was tough to find. Not that we have a lot of traffic, but it was out of the way.
#2: To enter the building, you needed to walk past the dumpsters. So when they DO find the space, they’ll need to see the building’s trash.
#3: The parking was pretty slim.
The hunt continues…
West 6th Spaces with Sandy Coakley
One of the first people that I called when we decided to move was Sandy Coakley of Coakley Real Estate.. He used to be with a company that my former employer used, so I knew he had a grasp of the area, and what we were looking for.
We met on a cold December afternoon to look at a few spaces. The first one was pretty funny for me…it was my old office! (Sans-carpet, and a few walls that used to be there.)
While I loved that office, for me, it wasn’t a good fit for what we were looking for. It was a shade on the small side for our current growth path, but the price was right so it was worth a look.
Next, we went over one block to the Bradley building where the were finishing up a space that had some SERIOUS potential.
We went so far as to use our old-friend SketchUp to see what it’d look like with furniture.
Looks like we can fit about 15 people in here. Definitely on the short-list! Talking to the landlord, I think this will come in around $11.00 a foot built-out. My only caveat is the lack of parking, but we can work that out.
Tyler Village Visit
After a quick call to my friend Michael DeAloia, he suggested that I call Dave Fleming of Tyler Village. He remarked that he had worked with another company to get them moved in there last year.
I did a quick drive-by and thought the location was good, so I figured it was worth a call.I called Dave Fleming and discovered after about 10-seconds that we already knew each other. His brother is Geoff’s room-mate. Small world!
We set up a time to go look at about 3,000sq of space. They have 2-3 options for us, and we know where he lives, so we’re expecting he’s not out to get us.
Tyler Village has a LOT planned for the next few years. You can read more about the place on their website. Here are a few pics from their site.
Here’s the current reality. Not too shabby, but a bit off of the vision.
Overall, this was our early winner. We still need to look a more spaces, but I think we’re on the right track here.