A Tale of Two Cities: Finding The Warehouse of My Dreams — Part 1
This is the saga of my search for an industrial space/workshop for Treleaf, my brand of wooden home decor for interior green spaces. Fair warning–this tale includes a rant against bureaucracy, LOL.
Background
I have always kept Treleaf lean and agile, using a micro-manufacturing operation with fast design cycles. This helps me keep low inventory and align products closely with customer needs. We use CNC/laser technology and make our products in the US.
Humble Beginnings
Treleaf started out in a shared space in The Maker Station, a wonderful community maker space in Marietta (in the Atlanta area). The maker space helped to keep overheads low while the business was small, and while we were refining the product and market fit. As business grew, I realized we would need to move to a dedicated space. At the end of 2021, I decided to take the leap and find an industrial workshop. I wanted a space that had some office space as well.
Looking for a commercial lease
Thus began a six-month saga of entering the commercial real estate rental market. I was very excited and optimistic going into the process, but the optimism started to wane quickly. There was hardly any inventory in the market for small commercial spaces. Most spaces were over 10,000 sq ft–too big for us. Most smaller spaces were purely office spaces–not really suitable for our operations. Additionally, I wanted to remain compliant with zoning codes, which further limited our options. I needed something that was zoned flex or industrial, or otherwise OK for our setup.
Every morning I would browse Loopnet (the commercial equivalent of Zillow/Redfin), as well as Craigslist and Facebook. I would also drive around town to visit industrial areas and call a number of agents that had billboards.
I found a reasonably sized space on Craigslist. The rent was not bad and the landlord was great. The landlord had run businesses in the past, and was very understanding and agreed to do a short lease (the typical lease term for commercial spaces is at least 3 years). I signed the lease just before the end of 2021.
The First Space in the First City
We moved into the new space in early 2022 and were super excited to have our own space. The major piece of equipment to be moved and installed was our laser cutter. With the permission of the landlord, we decided to vent the laser cutter out of the space.
Everything looked fine, and we started doing some test runs. While setting up the new space, we were using another laser cutter in the maker space as a backup. I wanted a space with some office space, but mostly a warehouse. We realized that because we were cutting wood, there was a visible exhaust (we had not previously realized this in the maker space, because their vents had been previously installed).
An Unpleasant Incident
Unfortunately, I was bullied by an occupant of a neighboring unit within a few days, who just trespassed into my space and started yelling at me and my team-mate. An unknown stranger was standing inside my warehouse, with his phone camera on, taking a video of my space, and yelling at me: “You are illegal, I will shut you down.” I asked him politely to leave my property and he did leave after another bout of ranting. My heart was racing, and I felt unsafe.
I called the cops and reported the incident. When the police stopped by, the trespasser was indignant and insisted that our vent did not comply with the covenants, and that he could smell the exhaust. I stated that I was using the flex space in accordance with the county and had initiated a permit. I also noted that it was possible that there was an odor, and that we were running tests precisely to solve these types of problems with filters and the like. The cops sternly warned him that regardless of the circumstances, he had no right to trespass on my property, and that the right way was to complain to the city or the county if he was so inclined.
Dealing with Permits
I did have a temporary permit from the city. The permanent permit was making its way through the works, which is itself an exhausting and bewildering multi-step process, including multiple inspections. We did not pass one inspection because the department insisted on a separate permit for the vent. I reached out to contractors but got untenable quotes for doing the vent–a simple and straight 8’’ inch pipe along the wall, with no complex fabrication or units needed.
Now we could not make products in this space, since the department had asked us not to operate anything before completing the permit. With the hostile neighbor and these difficulties, I knew it would be hard to continue, even though the space was really good. So I spoke to the landlord and explained the situation. He kindly agreed to an early termination.
Back to Square One
Now we needed to find another space. We could temporarily use that space for storage and fulfillment but not for production. I moved the laser machine to my garage as a temporary fix.
I started using the maker space laser, and looked into temporary contract manufacturing. This was not feasible because of the high cost.
So we had to move again. And it was even more difficult with the pending urgency. I was frantically looking for warehouse spaces. However, this time I knew exactly what to look out for, and to be much more specific in looking at the surrounding environment and considering the business-friendliness of the city and county.
Part 2 coming up in a few days… The search continues.
