Termination of Hackspace Tenancy

Space and infrastructure
1

We have to move

  • Our lease terminates on December 31st, 2014.
  • Our property management company has not exercised their right to extend their lease to our landlady
  • That means that our lease also ends.

When we have to move out by

  • December 31st, 2014

What happened

  • Our lease extension to December 31st 2016 was not valid.

  • Our lease was with our landlady, whose lease was not renewed.

What you can do

  • Look for a new location.

  • Organize in this thread to track these efforts.

Any comments, questions, or requests for clarifications should be sent to directors@vanhack.ca

2

FAQs specifically about the move (As we get them)

For questions unrelated to the move, we have a thread here

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3

Holy crap. :frowning:

8

Let’s keep this thread for active looking only and start another for wishlists. :smile:

I’m going to call these two places tomorrow:
http://spacelist.ca/p/bc/vancouver/260_e_4th_ave/264
http://spacelist.ca/p/bc/vancouver/10_e_3rd_ave/10

Both sound pretty awesome actually, and are practically our neighbours!

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11

How big is the current space?

12

We calculated it to be around 2000-2600ft, but I bet someone else has better numbers.

13

It was rented as 2500, but doing the math, yeah it’s more like 2000 iirc. It’s 2500 with the front Kokoro Dance space.

16

Poops. That sucks.

How big of a space is VHS looking for? Same size(ish)?

What is the budget?

Preferred location?

VHS is a non-profit?

17

Yes, we’re a non-profit. We’d be looking for roughly the same size/rent, which is around 3500/month @ 2K sqr ft. Ideally somewhere in the neighborhood, but we’ll consider other locations.

18

Ok, just wanted to make sure.

It might be worth considering looking for a 10 year lease. The city gives infrastructure grants for organizations with longer leases.

19

A long lease might be good for security but doesnt allow for growth or higher space requirements in the future.

20

True. Looking at a longer lease would mean going for a larger space and subletting until the grow caught up. This would bring in another level of administrational need. Might be a little much.

22

Some useful info in case we end up sub-leasing again.

http://businesslawblog.ahbl.ca/2012/06/12/commercial-subleasing-concerns/

23

[quote=“jon, post:14, topic:508”]
What was our originally planned budget for rent in the new year?
[/quote]Our current rent was supposed to go up to 3700/month in the new year, but honestly, that is more than we are currently able to afford with our income.

24

Here’s the list of requirements and nice-to-have’s for spaces from the last time we were looking for a space: Quest for the Space.

A couple of things I do want to strongly caution about this process, from our experiences with the last space search:

  • Putting too many hard requirements on the search - there are already very few spaces that fit our basic needs and size/budget, and anything more brings us closer to making the space search a search for Unobtanium.
  • We have to move fast and can’t take weeks to make a decision; we lost several spaces last time because of this. Spaces that meet our size/budget requirements get snapped up quick.
26

@tdwebste Please don’t clutter this thread.

Here’s a spreadsheet for tracking the Quest for the Space 2014: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15uA7TUdjWsL8oFAYBfd-GrZ_0MFfJBl9v-oj8vZVfm8/edit?usp=sharing

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27

http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/van/rew/4737095321.html

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29

Since it took so long last time and it got bikeshedded to hell and back I propose a moving committee. We simply don't have the luxury of involving the whole membership in the decisions this time around, that is part of why it took around year to find the Bunker. A small committee (of 10?) Should be empowered to make the call within strict guidelines. Ill volunteer yo help as much as possible, comittee or not, as I am currently unemployed [funny... last time I lost my job we had to move too... clearly it is in the Membership's best interest to keep me employed.... :-) ]

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30

I completely agree with @miststlkr - except even 10 is a lot of people for a committee. I’d rather closer to 6, or at least some number where everyone’s active and nobody just there to have a voice without productive output. Let’s organize over in https://talk.vanhack.ca/t/quest-for-the-space-ii-the-bunker-buster/511

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32

Fact.

Keep it to six people and delegate out to the membership some of the search or initial tasks. Leave it to committee to create criteria, narrow it down and make the final selection along with BOD approval.

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