Update (with a quote!) on the potential space in Giralang

hey guys

adam and I had a meeting with actpg with this morning about the tucana st giralang property

they want us to move to a new location by november

they have played with the numbers so we don’t pay for some things and pay a minimal rent on others

see linked pdf

its a 5 year lease, for the first year the rent will be $4600 per year, $383/month. this increases by 3% every year for the whole 5 years. its not the $181.70/month we are currently paying but I think its better than we were expecting and longer term than what we have now

peter

documentation

EDIT By @csirac2_: For the sake of those unfamiliar, seel also:

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This looks like a really good option to me and by far the best one we have right now. I think the space is a good fit for our use case, there’s hardstand that they have factored into the price (it accounts for about $500pa) which we can put a container or two on, a prefabbed shed or even a bespoke structure depending on our funding when we decide to do that.

ACTPG seem to be very accommodating of our needs and circumstances. I’d like to ask of them is if we could have the bathroom made wheelchair accessible before we move in (and only pay rent on Gininderra house while we wait). I don’t know how much things like this cost, how long they take or even really how to get started on them. I think I’d probably go to ACTPG and mention this idea and see if they have preferred suppliers who could give us a quote on expense and time, then we can work out if we can afford it on our own or if we need to seek extra funding from somewhere.

I’d also like to get a sparky in to put a few more GPOs and at least one 15A outlet for the welder.

They want us to move ASAP so they can hand the Ginninderra house land back to LDA but I think we can hold them off until Nov if we have to.

Does anyone else have any thoughts or ideas they’d like to contribute or questions you want Peter and I to pass on to ACTPG?

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BTW, I’ve update the title and moved this in to general chat to get the most people looking at the proposal.

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This is basically the perfect home for MHV - great land lord, cheap rent, awesome site but I just want a few weeks to make sure we don’t have any other options in a more central location. I realize Ginninderra House has really spolit us, I’m worried how much member activity will drop after the move - in my mind, I think we’ve managed to score a fair amount of casual drop-ins and membership activity probably due to its amazing location :smile:

For what it’s worth, I asked on reddit how important location is for hackerspaces - it seems for some groups it really was important https://www.reddit.com/r/hackerspaces/comments/4frvwa/how_important_is_the_real_estate_of_your/

I accept that Canberra is different though; I’m probably worrying about nothing. And in any case, we could work harder to recruit members (posters around town reminding people that we exist? More participation/representation in community events? Recruiting new members around the Giralang area?).

Anyway, my questions are:

  • What’s the terms for a break-lease (break-license?) process? Or is this more of a “promise we won’t bulldoze your lease for at least 5 years” rather than a “please don’t move out” angle? I ask “just in case” a magical new central location becomes available to MHV in that time, or MHV collapses… but given that this hasn’t happened so far that’s probably irrational :stuck_out_tongue: It does seem weird this isn’t clarified in the current doc though.
  • Next committee meeting is 10 May, depending on how the next few weeks go, would it be weird if I proposed delaying committing to Tucana St until the 14 June committee meet while I annoy CBRIN, ANU Makers and BCC people just in case they’re secretly bursting to give us a more central location?
  • Is it worth doing a surveymonkey or similar thing in time for the next 10 May committee meet? “How many times have you visited the space this year”? “Would you be more or less likely to visit us in Tucana St”? I’m an expert at worrying, you see, so I wanted some data to check if I was worrying for nothing.
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The standard clause they have in all their full documents is that either party can provide 6 months notice of intention to terminate the agreement without penalty.

I’m happy to give it some time. I’ll probably chat to them about getting quotes on the accessibility mods before May 10 so we can start to make decisions around that.

We’ve had a few attempts at doing surveys using google forms, the data tends to be interesting but too easy to average out any dissenting views. I like conversations that aim for consensus where minorities can be heard and the group move closer to something that accommodates them.

This probably sounds heartless, but I’m not thinking in terms of decision-making, minorities/consensus - just data that might suggest what change, if any, we might see in active members after the move.

Rent cost increase combined with fewer financially contributing members means we need to start contemplating changes. Hopefully it’s just minor changes. I have ideas on improving the visibility of our finances, for example.

In any case, I’m 99% sure 17 Tucana is where we’ll go. I just feel it’s in our best interests to get a handle on how far out of reach the other options are. And then when people complain, we can say that we tried… these are crappy motives I know, but what can I say, the life of a pedant isn’t as glamorous as it sounds :slight_smile:

This stuff is beyond me, but I seem to agree with your thoughts on it all. From the photos this looks like a cool spot.
I’ve been very busy but I’ll do my absolute best to help you guys in the move. Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.

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Do we know the status of the copper to the building? @Dexta_Bb and I weren’t too sure it was still connected. Something to consider if we’re getting sparkys/contractors in.

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Tara Cheyne visited the space last week, they really liked our BCC presentation. We should do more of those!

Tara noted that Tucana St was probably ideal for noise, more central possibilities can’t accommodate welding etc.

Tara directed us to this dollar matching grant opportunity, which we’ll likely not make in time (may 20): http://www.communityservices.act.gov.au/multicultural/programs/grants/community-support-and-infrastructure-grants

But we could get a wheelchair/accessibility modifications quote started, which we need anyway.

@devdsp @jellyware, could you ask ACTPG who they’d like to see a quote from?

It may be a good idea to show the space to @voltagex before the quote happens, in case there’s non-obvious issues to be addressed.

But of course, I’m probably getting ahead of myself, we don’t even have keys yet, and maybe ACTPG would like to go halves (or thirds with CSIG? :slight_smile:

I’m confused. Why would actpg want quotes on something they havn’t agreed
to for a space they have not rented out?

Who is voltagex and why should we be talking to him?

Who is csig? Halves in what?

In my humble opion I think we should concentrate on submitting our already
late financial reports and electing the new committee to orchestrate this
move

sent from my phone

Fair enough.

As linked above, CSIG is the Community Support and Infrastructure Grant that closes 20 May. The grant requires a quote. That quote should be compatible with ACTPG’s requirements.

As mentioned above, it’s for wheelchair modifications.

I’ll wait for committee to organize an audit/AGM before bothering with this any further.

Sorry paul

Makes sense now

Sounds like a great idea. Not sure how much time I have to devote to the
application in the next few weeks though

sent from my phone