The Smoketown Collective
This month—March—is the first month that I can say we are "full up" at the buildings located at the corner of South Shelby Street and Breckinridge in Smoketown. Sarah and I purchased 900 S. Shelby in the spring of 2015 and the two buildings next door later that fall. (The true maniac of the two of us, Sarah had not even seen inside when she gave me the go-ahead.)
It's taken longer than I thought to find tenants for the buildings' various nooks and crannies. And, it's been way more expensive than I thought to make the improvements to the buildings that we've made.
Some of the best things that I've done in my life are things I never would have done if I'd known what I was getting myself into. Thank goodness for ignorance, I guess, and Stephen Kertis who encouraged me to move to Smoketown in the first place.
I've started thinking of the mix of a dozen or so businesses, nonprofits, and artists using our space as The Smoketown Collective. It's organizations advocating for undocumented people living in our communities, helping kids get a extra boost with summer programming. People bringing the chillest, freshest music to our town and folks gathering to support one another as they move off the street and into permanent housing. It's a place I like to spend time almost every day of the week because while the work we do differs, it feels like we're all pulling in the same direction.
While I can credibly fly the "No Vacancy" flag outside our buildings, if you are an individual or organization looking to rent office space or needing one-off meeting space, get in touch using the form in this post. Depending on your needs, we may be able to squeeze you in somewhere, somehow. Plus, we may have vacancies in the future. And, hey, even if you're not a tenant, we may still be able to make a one-off event or meeting work in the space. I'm really happy that some nonprofits and community groups have started using our conference rooms to meet and organize even though they're not technically tenants.
Robert Kahne and Jazmin Smith of My Old Kentucky Podcast
Also, one of the things I'm pretty excited about is our podcast studio. If this is something you could use, be in touch. We have three good microphones and a soundboard. BYOComputer. Right now, My Old Kentucky Podcast records out of The Smoketown Collective, but I'd like that to expand to other shows.
Here's a slideshow of the evolution of the buildings over the last two years. Man, it's been a ton of work.
