Sunday, March 23, 2008

Office Space Hunt

I've been on the hunt for office space in our fair neighborhood lately. I had an office downtown, which was in a neat location, but it was an interior office with no windows, very tiny, and not all that cheap. I figured that up 'round these parts it'd be easier to find something at a reasonable price that was much nicer. Also, I like Rogers Park, like the idea of supporting it more, and like walking around the neighborhood. We frequent neighborhood stores, restaurants, and bars often. The area just feels like home.

In my hunt, I've looked at a few different spaces. I have a strong lead on one place that, if everything works out, I'll go for. It's right by the coffee shop Ennui, which would be nice for my morning coffee and snack needs.

I talked to another guy at another space on Morse. He showed me the space, I liked it, but didn't want to make a rash decision, so I thought on it overnight. In the mean time, he had even called me and offered to drop the price. Great! Definitely was within my budget. So I called him back the next day to agree to make a deal, and I received a strange, "Uhhh, I'm not sure if I can rent it now," reply from the guy. He indicated that somebody else had called him and is negotiating to lease the entire space. Could I wait a week and see if that falls through? If we had that discussion in person, he would've seen me roll my eyes. Tell ya what, I'm gonna keep looking. If you still have space next week, you feel free to ping me and offer it up. Strangely, that same day, he put up a new ad on Craigslist, asking for more money. Maybe he had second thoughts about what he offered the space to me for?

Anyway, that space was right by where people keep busting out windows these past few days. And I was fonder of the next space I looked at.

Anybody have any other leads on office space in RP? Need a one man space, maybe internet, maybe phone (or depending on the space I can use my sprint card and cell phone). I work for an Internet company and just need a quiet place to work. Ennui and Starbucks work for short periods, but not for the long haul.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I just found your blog, I was looking for space too. My company ended up deciding on Ravenswood, but I looked at offices in the Atrium building, on B'way and Devon. Maybe that's too far South, but they seemed reasonable. Plus you could study tai chi during your lunch break..:)

Al Iverson said...

I'm actually going to end up with an office at Lunt and Sheridan, if all goes according to plan (there are some issues with the proposed lease at the moment). If not, I was thinking of looking at the Atrium building, I saw a space available sign there.

The North Coast said...

I saw a couple of vacant spaces in the same building in the 6500 block Sheridan that houses Carmen's Restaurant. Looks like 2nd floor spaces available.

There also MIGHT be spaces available in the Village Theatre Bldg on the 2nd floor, over Starbucks. They looked vacant. If you are down there, check it out. I'll write back with phone numbers when I go by the place tonight.

Al Iverson said...

Thanks for commenting. :)

Great minds think alike. I go to that Starbucks a lot, and they gave me the name of the building owners. I talked to them and they are going to put offices upstairs there, but they're not ready yet, and won't be until later this summer. In fact, I emailed them again today just to check in and see how it was coming. Looks like they're doing a bit of remodeling on the building these past few days, replacing bum tiles and blocks.

I think that stuff right by where Carmen's is, is kind of a hole. Wouldn't be my favorite place to work from. Close to the el, not a bad area, but just not my fave. If my current opportunity flames out I might check out that Atrium building just south of Devon.