New space meeting 2018 04 10

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Revision as of 20:03, 10 April 2018 by 192.195.83.130 (talk)
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Please see:

https://pad.riseup.net/p/noisebridge-space-program https://pad.riseup.net/p/nb-new-space

Meeting agenda for 2018-04-10

Spacewalkers update

  • 1077 Howard spacewalk (came in through Starboard Realestate)
    • costly, requires a co-tenant
  • Saw 351-353 9th Street - 5 spacewalkers present
    • $20/sqft/yr
    • Broker willing to negotiate on the rate
    • Building will be completely renovated in ~3 years -- this is not attractive to retail companies
    • *UNICORN SPACE*
    • bringing the price down to ~$17/sqft/yr would make this very attractive (NB today is $10.83/sqft/yr)
  • Cheaper space tends to be in Dogpatch/Hunters Point/Bayview
  • Still focusing search on BART adjacent corridores
  • Looking to submit LOIs (letter of intent - non-binding offer) to 1144 Howard and 351 9th
    • Need to decide on 351 or 353 - same leaseor
    • $5,700/mo for 4,300 sqft space
    • Space has sat idle since Q4'17
    • Blake from HelloOffice has offered to advise on this
    • Lease rates + terms
  • How do we coordinate ongoing negotiations?
    • Will spin up a working group + Slack channel (made by mister_name, #negotiation_wg)

Very large money bag update

  • Emailed Danny today about getting in touch with Cory Doctorow, Pavel will help to contact CD as well if provided with email and PGP key.
  • Looking into other doners
  • Watched video on grant proposal writing by SF's Foundation Center
    • Many other videos by same org that are good resources
    • Learned that it's a really good idea to have a giant file full of stuff that can be paired down - proposals need to be tailored to be relevant
    • Victoria has experience putting together such a file, there are standard topics to cover in this sort of file, leads to consistent message
    • Victoria will host a workshop on Saturday beginning around 14:00 at NB to get started on this
  • mister_name met w/ Gina Falsetto of SFMade
    • Try to help find clients find cheaper space
    • Built a large building in SF, talked about how they raised the funds
    • Mostly grants, federal new markets tax credit program, administered at the state level
    • Needed to gather and present data on supporting low-income/industrial employees -- lots of demographic information on their constituency
  • Grants do sound onerous up-front, getting the file together can take a couple of weeks, but will allow us to roll out grant apps more quickly in the future
    • Started to get together resumes and/or biographies of senior management staff (@NB we interpret this to be the Board Officers)
    • What did/will you spend the money on? We can ask for yearly recurring grants if we show we spent the last grant money well.
  • How does gathering demographic data interact with our value of privacy?
    • This can be done with the right data collection techniques
    • Could be a anon form on-line or doc in the space (Jeremy will print the doc)
  • We should get in touch with MEDA about MAP2020, and someone should go to the meeting on April 18th if they have time!
    • Kevin will start a wiki to document MAP2020 info
    • mister_name will attend the meeting with MEDA

Make it raining

  • Augur made sign w/ recurring donations target up at noisebridge
  • On Patreon we are at $1,172 recurring monthy donations

Media

  • Can we enable media to distribute to NB social media more efficiently?
  • Augur is making a video uploader to post to NB YouTube, will auto-composite in an intro, lower third, outro. Augur and Jeremy shot some video at NB MAPP on Saturday to put in the intro/outro

Cotenant Update

  • Natile from Kids camp exploring sharing space with NB. Gathering more information atm.
  • Mark heard offhand from some game developer comapanies looking for office space
  • Kickstarter is interested in sharing space with NB

Discuss renewing at 2169 compared to leasing elsewhere

  • 1yr at 2169 might not be enough time to raise funds for a building purchase
  • Terms on 2169 elevator are unreasonable
  • What are the chances of getting a new tenant at 2169 that's not NB?

Discuss signing an exclusive with a tenant broker

   Last night a group of us met with commercial real estate broker Mark Gedymin, from TRI Commercial real estate brokers. This meeting was for Mark to justify to us entering into a time-limited exclusive agreement w/him, 30, 60 or 90 days.        
                                                                                                                           
   tl;dr- Brokers need to earn a living, if we want one to hustle for us, they want to know they're gonna be paid for it.  Blake from Hello Office didn't ask an exclusive, and he also didn't hustle.  The objection raised by Kalin (real estate booklet author): brokers that represent tenants AND owners are invalid and should be avoided.                                   
                                                                                                                           
   Mark's counter: most brokers work both sides of the street, and the broker repping tenants exclusively is a rare duck.  Since there's very little space on the market, he mostly works on behalf of tenants. He currently has two property exclusives, the rest of his deals have been repping tenants (including three robotics companies recently).                           
                                                                                                                           
   Either way, commission is paid by the owner.  High benefit, low risk.                                                   
                                                                                                                           
   Mark did the one thing few others have: shown an interest in Noisebridge. He came for the meeting, stayed for ~2.5 hours, answered many questions, was direct and honest.  Most brokers I speak with have a limited attention span, and tend to grow disinterested when they find out we're an NPO of limited means.                                                            
                                                                                                                           
   Mark was up front that he works with NPOs, is on the board of an NPO (SF Suicide Prevention), and is happy to work within our limitations.                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                           
   He's even offered to donate 20% of his commission to Noisebridge.                                                       
                                                                                                                           
   Industrial space vacancy rate in SF is _super-low_, which means rising prices and very limited availability. We're in "a landlord's market," which means landlords have their pick of the pool of tenants applying to a space.  It's super-competitive and we need every advantage we can get.                                                                                  
                                                                                                                           
   Collectively there hasn't been a lot of effort to find a replacement space, and we need an advocate to hustle for us. A couple weeks from now, I won't be available to focus as much on  , and without somebody to drive this process, it's unlikely we'll find a replacement property.                                                                                    
                                                                                                                           
   Mark has 15 yrs experience, from which he's given us detailed advice about every step of the process. He has extensive contacts with owners and brokers, plus a subscription to the CoStar multiple-listing service, all of which gives him visibility to properties we can't see on CL or loopnet.                                                                             
                                                                                                                           
   Last night we heard positive news on the 2169#3 front, but that should not stop our search.  It's possible that we'll find a better deal than renewal offers, even net of moving costs, and we should keep our hand in the market.                  
                                                                                                                           
   And in the case of 2169#3 lease renewal, an experienced broker can help shape the renewal terms in ways we won't think of.  Trent and Patrick have been doing a great job just getting Brian to the table; adding Mark to that mix may get us an edge that leads to a better deal.  "Never accept the first offer."
  • Read the contracts closely, some will require payment even if no lease is signed
  • Once we sign an exclusive, MG would get a commission regardless where the property came in from
  • Signing the exclusive gets NB up higher on MG's stack
  • Trevor and Mark from Starboard Commercial Realestate will work with us on a non-exclusive
  • Blake from HelloOffice will work with us on a non-exclusive