First we discussed these Notes from Will and Jake:

 

CJ now has a freshly signed 29 and a half year lease from their

landlord. They are in the process of doing subleases for us, Reclamere

(the company currently building all the stuff in the middle section of

the warehouse), and Steel City Biofuels (SCB).

 

 CJ has a grant application in to ===zap=== for a whole

bunch of money over the next few years. Mike says they are very

optimistic about getting it, but it's not a sure thing. The money would

be spent on redoing the building facade (new garage doors, windows,

signage, etc), fixing the parking lot, and a variety of other

improvements. Before any of this happens, there will be a bunch of

design work, and we will be included in that process (probably starting

this Spring). Mike spoke of possibly coming to one of our meetings to

explain things, giving us copies of proposal documents, having

somebody-or-another interview us as part of the design process, etc.

 

 In the mean time, regardless of the big grant, several things are

happening now, or should be happening soon:

- New tenants with subleases (SCB & Reclamere)

- CJ is getting money from their landlord for building improvements

which will hopefully include tracking down the electrical problems with

the outside lights that don't work.

- CJ is moving a bunch of their operations out of the middle part of the

warehouse and into the space next to us. This will happen probably

within a month.

- CJ wants to turn one of the garage doors at the front of the warehouse

next to our shop into a common entrance (with a normal door) for us, CJ

donations, and SCB. In the near term this will be a cheap temporary

thing (as soon as the money is lined up and a contractor can be

scheduled to do the work). As part of the big plan with the grant money,

they want to do it up fancy with an ADA compliant ramp outside, a little

lobby inside the warehouse, a door and a hall leading back to our shop, etc.

 

 Nathaniel (SCB) says he will be turning the space he's leasing into a

"Biofuel Resource Center" which will begin as a library/store with

reference materials and eventually, he says, include a fuel pump out in

the parking lot. This office space will be staffed from 9-5 Monday

through Saturday. The office will be renovated, his sign will go on the

door, our sign will come off the door, there will be expensive office

equipment there, the locks will be changed, and we will not be bringing

bikes through (eventually... for now he has offered to give us keys, but

he wants us to use the side door to the warehouse and fill out a signout

sheet when we lock up... more details below). Nathaniel wants us to make

a contribution towards repairing the walls and doors that have been

dinged up by people bringing bikes through to the shop.

 

 

Loot:

=====

- Draft from Mike of our sublease-to-be (Will is going to bring this on

Sunday)

 

 

Action Items (roughly in order of urgency):

===========================================

1) Make sure everybody knows to start using the side door to the

warehouse rather than the hallway that goes past the offices.

 

2) Decide what to do about our sign on what is now Steel City Biofuels'

door... same goes for the wheatpasted bike dude next to it. Mike's

opinion is that we are responsible for removing them or otherwise

getting things back to a condition where Nathaniel can put his SCB stuff up.

  Nathaniel stated that he had signs he wanted to put up and that he

tried peeling off our vinyl, but it was stuck on too well. After some

discussion, Nathaniel offered to give us money toward making a new sign.

 

3) Decide what to do about a new sign (will says: something that could

be attached to the outside wall with some bolts and easily moved around

during the different stages of construction on the building facade would

probably be ideal).

 

4) Discuss the possibility of contributing $$$ toward converting one of

the warehouse garage doors to a new temporary shared entrance (fancy

lobby to come later with grant money).  Mike wasn't demanding that we

help pay for this, but if we don't, the alternative is working out a

deal with Nathaniel. Mike suggested that if we want to contribute, we

could come back to him with something like, "Free Ride will contribute

up to $xxxx for an even split (CJ, Free Ride, SCB) of the actual cost

for converting one of the garage doors to a new temporary entrance". The

cost would include some kind of stairs or ramp, a door, building a wall

around the door, keying the door, potentially duplicating keys, and a

bunch of labor.

 

5) Discuss the possibility of giving Nathaniel $$$ to fix the doors and

walls that have been beat up by people bringing bikes through. Nathaniel

asked for this, but Mike did not have much to say about it one way or

the other.

 

6) Start communicating more with Mike, in particular, letting him know

when we're going to be in the building and what we will be doing (so

they have something useful to tell people who come asking about us at

the front desk, among other reasons). Mike ===zap==  expressed enthusiasm for

helping us out and trying to communicate better, and he encouraged us

contact him by email about:

 + Our schedule for being in the building

 + Arranging extra temporary storage space (such as stashing bikes in

  boxes up on their pallet racks somewhere)

 + Things that we would like him to deal with, approve, etc.

 + Generally letting him know what we're up to

Mike suggested we could post a calendar of our activities (open shop,

classes, etc) over our donation bin and/or at their checkout. He said

people often come in asking about Free Ride (for example, people

arriving early for a class), and CJ doesn't know what to tell them other

than giving our open shop hours.

 

7) Decide how much space we want to lease (as in, do we want to add any

more). A couple options: the 14'x12' office that opens into the

warehouse next to the circuit breaker by the bathrooms ===zap===

 

 

Moving Forward With the Sublease:

=================================

  ===zap===

 

 

 

Square Footage:

===============

 

Mike, Will, and Jake measured our current shop space and the little

office that we can lease if we want...

 

Current Shop Dimensions:

- Orange paint line up front to the back wall is 110 ft

- Block wall with bike hooks to the back of our wood wall (not including

the gap between the wall and the pallet racks behind it) is 20 ft

- 20'x110' = 2200 sq ft

===zap===