Inspiration
It was common in the 1890's for women to create their own hair accessories. Victorian women actually purchased magazines that offered intricate patterns allowing them to create their own hair jewelry. The women would then spend hours weaving the hair into earrings, crucifixes, even chains for their husband's watch. Women would collect their own hair or purchase it from another source and then put it away until they had mastered the technique with the horsehair.
As artists, the women most likely would look for an inspiring yet social setting to do their craft. Maybe parishioners to this church sat listening to the preacher talk about the brave new world of late 19th Century river valley life while weaving away at various projects. Maybe the previous generations trend was an ironic foreshadowing to the more current use of the building as Salon St. John.
Whatever the purpose this architectural gem has been used for over the last 120 years, its has held its beauty, its prominence, and certainly its ability to find relevance is an adaptive reuse. With the renovations and updates done in recent years, the current owner has insured the next hundred years will include 705 1st Ave E. in scenic Shakopee, Minnesota and all the hairstyles that go with it.
Find out more, click on the link on the right. Please be patient, its a larger file.
Good morning...time to go to work.
The world as we are sold it or the world as we know it can be. The choice and the path chosen needs to be a the cup half full view of what is going on and the overflowing opportunity of what can be. People are waking up to the possibilities but only with a loud alarm clock. Hopefully, we stay awake on this one and get some things done.
This isn't a scary time to be in the world, its a great time to be alive. Changes are possible for those that continue to think and act toward the positive possibilities.
Remember, you own your reactions and can shape your surroundings. Wake up and live.
How does this apply to commercial real estate? Economy and environment and the desire to make things more efficient and inspiring are bringing infill, sustainability, adaptive reuse, flexible use buildings and floor plans all part of the real estate discussion now.
Tenants need to request "green" space that is designed to inspire and invigorate and they need to take that request to the landlord, the developer, and broker. Its all all their best business interest to focus on the long term benefits a sustainable project brings them and the community in which they reside.
The view out the window right now might be discouraging but beyond the immediate and somewhat damaged framework is the beauty of the horizon of our infinite possibility to make all this a necessary step toward clarity. So get out of bed.
Just a search, engines do not solve....Rofo has more
Jason Kincaid said in his
Techcrunch post -'One of the most irritating obstacles encountered by growing startups is the hunt for affordable office space. Startups with a dozen employees generally aren’t interested in leasing vast tracts of space, which makes them unattractive clients for business Realtors, so they’re typically left to fend for themselves.'
You may believe this is true in our little corner of the commercial world if;
a) you just call the listing brokers with space that doesn't fit or you just call the tenant brokers that are fat and happy only working bigger deals
b)or, your company is not ready to be decisive or you are calling everyone in town to have many do the work of one
c)or, you and a broker have yet to connect on a meaningful level that might create an awareness for you that its more about negotiating and understanding the process than just about finding available space.
A tenant representative commercial broker that understands that Medtronic, Caribou and Best Buy too were start-ups once upon a time should see value in a young company. They should be willing to a least discuss their needs and maybe offer up a little advice.
Rofo maybe a beginning step toward introducing the connection or at least getting some of this value out to the young companies.
Rofo (which stands for “Right of First Offer“)has intuitive search and selection steps paired with reviews, Google Map and Virtual Earth features.
Rofo's real potential, in Adam's mind, is with the advice section. Being ex-brokers at the helm, the content is great advice for people new to the process and with an added feature of posting questions, the advice can only get more specific. Still as it sits today, people don't know what they don't know and rofo advice starts to introduce these topics in a intuitive, easy to use format. Now, we just need the Minneapolis Warehouse District listings and the rest of the commercial space in Minneapolis/St. Paul be listed on their site. When Adam traded email with their founder, it sounded like it may happen in '09.
Until then, call a tenant rep broker. They will save you time and money!
Need a place to get rolling? Here's your chance.
Artists, craftsmen, bikers, potters, painters, welders, recyclers, renovators, photographers, architects, graphic designers, collectors, upholsters, florists, bakers, candle stick makers....all need a place to call home. Here it is. An cool old brick building with open, functional floor plan, loading dock, huge fenced yard and plenty of potential for the professional artists of the world. If you're looking for a place to apply your creative vision and your hard earned cash to build a masterpiece and an asset base, check out this Minneapolis Artist's building for sale just on the Eastern side of Theo Wirth Park in Minneapolis. Commuters, first-ring-sub-workers, I-need-a-studio-to-get-my-thing-on wannabes unite!
A good idea? At least an idea tested
Transcend Equity Development is a company that may or may not be on to something. The third party position that will upgrade old buildings with energy saving efficiencies while making a profit can be a risky proposition. Then again, so can any pioneering play into green capitalism. Kudos to them for being pro actively practical, entrepreneurial and assuming risk by taking the necessary lead for a better way. Better that than to wait for the government to get its act together, take off the energy sucking gloves after crisis and administer their potentially heavy handed help by mandating a half solution. Time will tell if Transcend will be a model to help transcend our 1/3 of ALL energy use suck fest that commercial real estate currently holds title.
"In times like these, it is helpful to recall that there have always been times like these." - Paul Harvey
It can be said that it is both a unique time and just like old times. Ask
Bono at the World Economic Summit in Davos and he'll tell you its a critical time for change. What is your answer to the
Davos Question?As commercial real estate professionals trying to put forth efforts toward making a better world, Adam thinks its with design of form, function and finance for flexibility and the future value. How this comes about will challenge our current view on the operating model. Spaces will need more dynamic less episodic uses and be relevant to more audiences. They will certainly need to be less modeled after our one way consumer mentality and more toward regenerative cohabitation. At the very least, they will need to be less wasteful. As the leaders are saying in Davos, its all connected. The butterfly in Georgia flaps its wings and it rains in Hong Kong is matched by lights left on in Cleveland and there are floods in Mozambique. Even if the connecting is hard to prove and the level of crisis is contended, its better that we love our brother, our mother and our pocketbook...they are all connected. They always have been and always will be.
