Office Odyssey

By Jonathan | Tuesday, September 07, 2010 | Company | No Comments

When we started The Clever Giraffe, we just worked out of my house for the first several months. Donnie and I occupied my “home office”, and filled it up entirely. Having two or three people working in the same room for four months can get pretty tight.

As the months went by , we started to spread over more and more of our house. In the days before a video

location shoot, for example, we’d set up all the equipment in my living room to make sure everything would work. We set up a green screen studio in my dining room and my garage. We ate lunch in my kitchen. My dog was an unofficial company mascot.

Now, at first glance, that sounds great. But I came to discover that combining your house and your office does not make for the best domestic life. And, it made if very hard to separate “work life” from “home life”. It was also a pain never being able to set anything up “for real” since it was, after all, my house…

So, in March of 2009, we started looking for office space. Ideally, we wanted a

large, open space that we could outfit as a studio on one end, and as our office space at the other end. Our “dream space” was a 1,000 square foot air-conditioned warehouse. We figured that the economy being what is is (bad) that we should be able to negotiate a good price. Our target was $750 to $800 a month, with a month-to-month lease, and we were willing to be very flexible on location, since neither of us really mind driving in the morning.

We looked on Craig’s List primarily. We looked at places all over Broward County. At first, all of them were either too small, too expensive, or both. Surprisingly, almost no one seemed willing to negotiate – even if the space had been vacant for months or even years.

One space we found was almost perfect – 900 square feet, a big open unfinished warehouse, complete with a large garage door. Unfortunately, the landlord wanted a thousand dollars a month, and we would have to sign a 3-year lease. He was also very nebulous on the “build out” part of the “unfinished”. He mentioned that adding air conditioning would cost $3,000 – but if he thought we were “good”, he might throw that in. Or he might not. To top it off, it wasn’t in the best neighborhood, so we passed.

We looked at others that were…. well, not right. One had a fixed, non-negotiable rent of $1081.23 a month. It was just barely 400 square feet, and had extremely low ceilings – about 6 and a half feet. Every time we asked the guy if we could make this or that alteration, he would look very worried and told us that any alterations – including painting – had to be approved by his wife. We got out of there as quickly as we could.

Our absolute favorite was a brand-new business warehouse / office park facility in Plantation. They had spaces ranging from 800 square feet to 5,000 square feet , over a hundred spaces in all. And every single one was vacant. We tried to negotiate a 1,000 square foot one… but the owner would not budge from $2,000 a month and a 3 year lease. In fact, he seemed to not want to rent the spaces at all – we subsequently discovered that he was a developer looking to sell off the entire office park.

After a month of searching, we finally found a nice little storefront property at 2142 Tyler Street:

It was 500 square feet – smaller than we wanted, but the price was within our budget, and the landlord was perfectly willing to accept a 1-year lease. He also said we could do anything we wanted to in the space. Which was good… since the interior looked like it had been decorated sometime in the 1960’s, when wood panelling was the “in” thing:

It also had some nasty carpeting and linoleum. And gross suspended ceilings. And too few electrical outlets. But the space was good, the location was good, the price and terms were right… and Donnie’s brother is a free-lance contractor.

So, we signed the lease on April 13, 2009. And immediately began gutting the place.

Our goal was an entirely open area. Clear all the way up to the celling, with exposed ducting and everything. We were going for an “industrial” look. But we wanted clean walls, lots of electrical outlets, low-voltage network wiring in the walls, and a clear space for a green-screened studio. Donnie’s brother Tim got to work. In two weeks we had new drywall up, clear ceilings, and all our electrical work done. All the disgusting 40-year-old carpeting and linoleum was ripped up as well (it was been set in place with roof tar, we discovered) and we blasted the floor down to the concrete, then covered it with a clean grey epoxy.

We moved in on May 6, 2009. The place stank of paint and epoxy, and it echoed in there like all get out.

The previous week, we had gone to our local Ikea and spent over a grand on desks, chairs, shelves, and other office goodies. It took us a day to get the desks together. Finally we had a place to sit and work.

Throughout the following week, we finished the work. Shelves were assembled and placed, artwork hung, white boards bolted onto walls. Our new space was up and functioning, and were happy as clams.

So that’s the story of our offices. We’re here at 2142 Tyler Street, Hollywood, Florida. It’s a great location, with good restaurants and other businesses all around. We have dedicated parking right in front, and it’s our own door. Walking in the door, visitors are greeted by… a clever giraffe.

Right now, we’re building out our complete studio. Already the back wall has been reconstituted into a permanent green screen, and over the next month we’re turning it into a full-on TV studio, complete with an overhead lighting grid and sound isolation. I’ll post the details of that project in a month or so, whenever it’s done.

I have to say, the whole process of finding and securing office / studio space was very enlightening. My final takeaway is this: If you’re willing to put some of your own sweat and blood into it, you can get a great space. If you find a space, and the landlord isn’t willing to negotiate, walk away. And keep looking. Most of all, be sure the space you find is one you’ll be comfortable in. Life is too short, you know.

---