Evolution of an Enterprise, Chapter 26: Left the Nest

Theworkshop 308 has flown from its 308 W. Commercial St. coop.

Just nine months into its existence, theworkshop temporarily relocated Oct. 5 to 301 N. Main St., inside the 100-year-old, 11,000-square-foot Green Barn Woodworks building, just south of architecture firm Butler, Rosenbury & Partners.

So is theworkshop “308” becoming theworkshop “301” with the address change? Don’t count on it, said co-owner Jason Mitchell.

“It’s where we started,” Mitchell said of the 1,400-square-foot space where the design firm spread its wings during its first nine months.

Mitchell and business partner Michael Mardis decided they had outgrown their original home just before their 12-month lease expired on Oct. 7.

“We were talking about our growth, future goals and upcoming workload,” Mitchell said. “Based on those three things, we felt this was the best decision.”

Mitchell and Mardis have been busy designing a house to be built on 47 acres in Webster County for client Marti Montgomery, and they’ve been busy building furniture and doing branding work for The Coffee Ethic LLC, a coffeehouse scheduled to open in November at 124 Park Central Square.

“Ideally, we would like to own a building that would be adequate for our existing space requirements but would also offer us a little room to grow,” Mardis said. “We would like a small shop for building mock-ups, models or the occasional piece of furniture.”

The duo say an ideal space would cover 2,000 square feet, and they’d like to be locked in for three-to-five years.

They’ve scouted two of developer Craig Wagoner’s center city spaces: The Place at Jordan Creek at Chestnut Expressway and National Avenue and Olive Place at Main Avenue and Olive Street.

While impressed, Mitchell and Mardis say Jordan Creek’s $12 to $15 per square foot lease rates are a bit high for them.

For now, theworkshop guys have settled into the Green Barn Woodworks building, owned by Jeff Avenmarg, an artisan woodworker and friendly acquaintance the last year.

Mitchell and Mardis don’t have office space in their new digs, and they only have about 300 square feet of space dedicated to them. But they have access to all of Avenmarg’s tools and a loading dock, and they say those are big benefits.

They also are paying only $200 a month on a month-to-month lease as they decide if they want to stay there or land someplace else. The three men will renegotiate the lease at the first of the year, and Avenmarg said there is space that could be dedicated for theworkshop 308’s office if Mitchell and Mardis decide to stay.

“I’m trying to help them out. They’re good young men, (and) I like what they’re trying to accomplish,” Avenmarg said. “They fit in with what we’re trying to do here. We have several different artists that are in this facility sharing space. For the most part, it’s really a co-op.”[[In-content Ad]]