A challenge....

Rking401 · Post by **Rking401** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 11:00 am

Hi all. Recent lurker here.
I am about to close on the purchase of a commercial building located in a small Florida Atlantic coastal town that has two vacant spaces side by side. I had a studio many years ago in Minneapolis and have laid out many studios when I was in the pro audio business also many years ago. This space is begging to be turned into a studio. The challenge (aside from finding the deep pockets to rent the space and equip the studio) is to lay out the physical studio in the alloted space. Since there is a fair amount of space available, I thought, well, maybe one large studio or possibly a medium studio and a small production facility. North wall is cement block, East wall is block with display windows, West wall is block with doors and large 14' high and wide roll up doors, South wall is sheet rock with office warehouse space next door. Problem: Approx 100' to the east of the studio is a single rail road track (I did mention a challenge didn't I?) used about 8 times a day. Attached is a drawing of the space. Any crazy ideas to make this space workable? Office and balcony spaces are expendable.

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 1:48 pm

First, with that vague a goal John and I would BOTH be dead before we figured out what you want to do in the space. It's a good sized space, and having the option of (nearly) gutting it is a good thing, no matter WHAT you decide you want to do with it. The roll-up door could be used as a load-in/out area, as long as you isolated it with smaller, more sealable doors/walls - this would most likely mean gutting the rest of things so you could utilize that space.

You mentioned deep pockets - with that railroad thing, there's another serious expense to look at - fully floated rooms. Not amateur-floated rooms, but the real deal, such as these guys specialize in -

http://www.kineticsnoise.com/architectural/index.html

For railroad duty, specifically this system -

http://www.kineticsnoise.com/architectural/lsm.html

Or, if your budget isn't making Bill Gates jealous, you could record only at 2 am between trains...

Seriously, though, we'd need to know more what you want to do in the space before much would come to mind other than the obvious "8 earthquakes a day" problem... Steve

Post by **John Sayers** » Tue Jul 15, 2003 10:20 am

Yeah - that's a nice building Rking401 - what's the ceiling height?? It looks like a two Studio A and B space. What ideas do you have??

cheers
john

Rking401 · Post by **Rking401** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 1:12 am

Hi John....
Ceiling height is about 17' to the framing with about another 2' or so above that. I am just sort of playing around with it right now while looking for some deep pockets to do the studio space. The A B idea is something that I had thought of doing also, with a large studio and a small production space. I do though have a sell job ahead of me to make it work, but am determined to do so. The space can be seen here: http://www.pbase.com/rking401/federal_plaza It needs alot of clean up in the pictures, but looking beyond that I immediately thought that it needs to be a studio.

barefoot · Post by **barefoot** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 6:23 am

Rk,

First of all I think you need to determine whether a commercial studio space is even viable in your location. I looked up Vero Beach on the map and it looks as if you'd need to travel about 150 miles to reach either Miami or Tampa. So, you're pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. Why would potential clients want to travel 150 miles up the Florida coast to a small town with few amenities, when they could stay in or around Miami where all the action is?

Sorry, I don't mean to be discouraging, but this is the most basic type of question you need to answer before you put any time or money into this venture.

Thomas

Rking401 · Post by **Rking401** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 7:38 am

Barefoot.... Thanks for the comments. I am in 100% agreement with everything you say. Vero is a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere. That is why I made the comments about finding someone with deep pockets as the first step. Ideally that person would be someone who wants a place to play and just toy around, with little need for the commercial side of the business. Vero Beach is a place with lots of monied folks who live here either full time or part time. Who knows, maybe it could be sold as a place where artists could come and do some recording and simply escape from the hustle and bustle (there is certainly none of that here).

Having moved from Minneapolis, where there was a ton of talent and lots to do, I have to say that sometimes this place drives me crazy. As for location, as you indicated, we are 150 from Miami, and 150 from Tampa. Orlando is also about 90 miles or so, and West Palm Beach about 70 miles.