Greetings,
I'm writing from Madison, wisco. Our community shop here is in kind of a pinch with our space, and I was wondering if folks might have some advice.
BACKGROUND: We started in 2003. We lost the lease on our orignial space last summer, and after a lot of messing around, we ended up in a comfortable deal with a small alternative high school. We get to use space in their rented suite of rooms in exchange for teaching classes in bike repair to their students. The building is owned by the City of Madison. We moved in last Sept. and opened shop hours in November. The place rocks. Here's our link: http://freewheelbikes.org/
PROBLEM: Turns out, the space we are using is not officially rented by the school. No rent is paid on the space. We operate openly and understood our agreement to be with the school. No lease signed. The property management vaguely knew of us, but had no opinion...until recently. Now they want rent and have hinted at evicting us. We have a meeting scheduled for next week.
QUESTIONS: Are there groups on this list that have space donated by the city? Is anyone able to share info about how you negotiated those deals? Any examples of successful situations with city/town-donated space?
thanks a bunch! wajid freewheel workshop