Co-Working Belfast, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
April 19th, 2008
Okay so things are gathering pace with the Co-Working Belfast initiative, here's a little round-up of what happened this week;
- Andy registered a domain for Co-Working Belfast.
- Andy booked a viewing for the potential space he found.
- We went to visit the office on Bradbury Place.
- We found a couple of other spots that didn't quite meet the criteria on a second walk around the Botanic / University area.
- We put an offer in for the space (see below).
- Darryl from Banjax gave us a load of advice, info on what people to contact about funding and even invited Brendan McGoran from Belfast City Council to the next open coffee meetup.
- We visited Blick Studios and met with the studio manager Christine James, we had a good chat and have a potential space if getting somewhere larger doesn't work out.
The Potential Space
The advertised vital statistics are as follows;
- 1900 (sqft)
- Rent at £8.50 (per sqft)
- Rent is therefore £16,150 p.a.
- Rates 2008/2009 £6,873
- Service charge (unknown)
- To be refurbished pending lease finalisation
After viewing the space it is definitely in need of a good bit of love so we made what I think is a fair offer, along with some extra conditions;
- At the lessor's cost, an architect to visit the property to asses what if any walls could be removed to make the individual offices larger.
- Re-paint walls and ceilings with a clean, matte white finish.
- Laminate wood flooring laid in the office areas.
The offer itself £10,000 p.a. for a 3 year lease. Some light mathematics and it's going to take around £60,000 over the next three years to make this a reality. I think we can do it.
Next Steps
So, the list I published at the end of last month we've managed to cross some things off and there are couple of things I would love to ask you to do, if you can answer any of these questions. Please leave a comment!
- Do you want a desk at Co-Working Belfast?
- What about just being able to drop in and use spare facilities?
- Would you be willing to put your money where your mouth is and chip in for the deposit?
- If we said it was going to be up and running next month... are you in?
- Can you provide any desks, chairs, monitors, computers?
- Do you have any good funding leads?
- Can you help in any way that I haven't mentioned above?
This week I will collate all of the feedback I get and use it to prepare a funding proposal, work out the cash flow, budget for setup costs and as usual tell you all about it. To wrap up, I'm just really looking for help here it was tough alone and now even with all the awesome stuff Andy has been doing and Darryl's advice it's actually getting harder. So please, step up, we can do this but only by co-working towards a common goal (I'll leave you with that awful pun).
April 19th, 2008 at 05:21 PM
My level of investment hinges on a higher ratio of co-working based punnery. Get cracking!
April 19th, 2008 at 07:31 PM
Sounds like things are coming together, guys!
The smaller offices could work out well, I'd be up for having a small room to be based in / shared with another person or something. As well as having some communal spaces, that would be ideal for me, as I think I'd still like to have my 'own' space/office within the co-working setting. I'm not sure how other people work but to be able to sit down in your own space away from distraction, and then work / relax / brain storm with others in a group space would be great!
Hopefully will make it along on Thurs to OCC as it'd be great to chat this out some more.
April 21st, 2008 at 07:18 AM
Have you considered the INSURANCE required for this location?
Costs are at 18K per year now (£1500/month) and insurance will likely be ...£300/month for this?
April 21st, 2008 at 10:14 AM
Matt, yes.
John, great! see you then.
People, I want money where your mouth is. If I don't see responses soon I'll have to do the time and tested charity thing and get my bright anorak and clipboard on and bring it to the next open coffee.
I'm totally IN for a permanent desk (as soon as tomorrow) and am bringing; Desk, Chair, £££
April 21st, 2008 at 11:18 AM
I can't commit to a desk but DEFINITELY would want to work there evenings/weekends as available - if you have a rent package set out for that, David, I'd love to hear it and get cracking.
I do have some $$ lying around (and I'm excited about the project) so I'm open to discussing how much we'd need to chip in for the deposit.
As I've just moved here from San Francisco and most of my stuff is in storage, I can't say for sure what we have lying around by way of chairs/monitors/desks but I'd estimate at least one computer (PC), desk and monitor would be available for communal use. Once I get moved into my new house (beginnning of June) and unpacked I'll know for sure. And yes, if it's open next month, I'm in.
Need to chat more - What TIME is Thursday's OCC?
April 23rd, 2008 at 06:55 AM
First -
Get a web site up at http://coworkingbelfast.com/
Second -
Schedule a chat for OpenCoffee. I'll blog this, you blog it, everyone blog it, twitter too and also we can market it on NiMUG and anywhere else that will let us.
Third -
If you can get enough people to commit to a deposit, show it is secure and can give me copies of the insurance certificate, then I'll commit to putting two Intel iMacs down there as 'drop in' machines for casual types. That's as well as securing a space there for my guys at Mac-Sys to use as a desk (which they will use very infrequently)
If this doesn't work out - come talk to me again because I know somewhere else that might work out.
Does this place have own door access?