Hey everyone,
Matt (@stochastic_forest) and I visited a potential hackspace location in Camberley. We were both very impressed - I have already discussed details with the IRC members quickly, and this forum post will be a place where photos can be put, and questions answered.
I will be making a sketchup model of the unit to aid visualisation.
More to follow!
The main gate to the units:
Some handy neighbours!
Entrance to the unit, at the back of the building:
One of two allocated spaces:
‘Social’ room, showing entrance and sink (and lovely estate agent). Matt is in the doorway to the ‘Workshop’:
Rear of social room showing partition wall and door to ‘storage room’:
Storage room (bigger than photo suggests):
‘Workshop’ room, full length of unit and windows to side. Matt for scale:
Electrics to rear of workshop room. 3 phase not installed, but available:
A daft-ish floor plan mockup, not really accurate as we did some rough measuring, but it’s close enough to visualise and gives a good idea. Pretend Matt for scale. We coined some usage ideas for the rooms, so I’m using those names to distinguish 
That’s pretty damn quick work 
It was pretty straightforward, and fresh in my head. Why not? 
The floor plan was easy to put together. I did most things from memory and the photos, so we have something to play about with at least.
Looks great! good work visiting and documenting it all, I and I am sure everyone else really appreciates your efforts!
The pretend Matt looks just like the real Matt !!
Is someone working up a financial plan for this space?
I happy to lend a hand Friday evening if work still needs to be done on it.
I like it a lot, I’ll help however I can (within reasonable limits) in the short time I have.
Here is a roughed out spreadsheet for the financials.
This looks like the bare minimum it might be wise to add some contingency.
**
**
Sadly it seems we were beaten to this unit by the people who saw it in the morning. There is a chance it might not complete, but I won’t be holding my breath.
Another opportunity for a space might be this property on Chapel Street in Farnborough.
The agent thinks it isn’t VAT registered so that makes the rent about the same as the Compton unit and the service charge is around the same level, so the economics are broadly the same.
Hopefully we can get a viewing later this week.
Further details can be found here.
I’ve created a costs spreadsheet for this property here.
I’m trying to schedule a viewing, but there seem to be delays in contacting the appropriate person.
The unit has been available for several weeks now, I think the main drawback is that it’s on the first floor which seems to be a concern for prospective tenants.
The advantage is that it doesn’t seem to be VAT registered which reduces our costs, however the rates seem to be bundled into the service charge. We should qualify for rate exemption if the unit is individually rated, though it may not be.
Latest update:
We have a viewing this Thursday at 2:00pm
Details on the property can be found here.
I’ve updated the member cost spreadsheet with details for Enterprise Estate they can be found here.
The long lease period is a disadvantage, there is a small chance for negotiation.
With ten contributing members and full rate exemption the average monthly amount would be just over £80 per member.
Shame about the Enterprise Estate, but it appears they don’t seem so keen to lease us a unit as we would constitute a change of intended use. Boo! 
Sounds like revisiting the Aldershot Enterprise Centre as discussed in a previous thread, definitely still has potential.
Here is a comparison table for our best current prospects:
Costings for the Old Brewery Farnborough can be found here and estate agents details here.
Pictures for Suite F Elles House, just down the road from the current space, here. Costings can be found here and estate agent details here. Suite F is not guaranteed to be available until Sept, though there is a small possibility that July might be feasible.
Pictures of Suite 8-9 Mandora House Farnborough can be found here, some older costings here
and location details here.
Pictures of Suite 1 The Arcade Chambers Aldershot can be found here, some costings here and estate agents details here.
Very nice Matt. I like the scoring system you have created - an average sum of the scores might be handy, but I’m under the impression Arcade Chambers is the frontrunner?
Mandora House has a lot of positives though. I think the main is the lease term, and whilst despite being the most expensive is the most flexible.
What controls the ‘amiable landlord’ parameter?
I opted not to go for a direct numerical comparison on the grounds that my weighting for factors may be different from yours
My personal opinion of the individuals and other biases controls the landlord factor, we haven’t met the landlord at The Chambers, so they are only imagined.
I’ve just noticed I probably should have included a factor for ease of finding new members and publicising events for which being in the centre of Aldershot has some significant advantages.
Brilliant Matt, thank you so much for visiting all these potentials and
documenting them so well, love the feature matrix and scoring. I would have
to agree that with Chris that the Chambers Looks the most promising.
regards
Al
PS The community area (ancilary space) will likely be all ours in the
evenings and weekends, thats great great for events etc…
Well it looks like things are getting serious about us actually getting a
space!
Really hoping that the pledges go through and we can fund a space, very
exciting.
Sadly I have to report that the Arcade Chambers is no longer available, it went sometime last week.
Gah! we really have to move faster folks in our responses…
We’re moving about as fast as we can. Only way to move faster is to parametrize the space we want and say “YES” as soon as something which fits comes available.