[Noisebridge-discuss] New space thread

[Andy Isaacson]

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 07:43:41PM -0700, d p chang wrote:
> grey <artkiver at gmail.com> writes:
> > The 5 year terms in particular are a big "yech" ??We could conceivably
> > purchase a place if we want to be that locked down; we could
> > conceivably pay for the mortage with our existing revenue, downpayment
> > on the other hand....

If we have a sugar daddy looking to donate a downpayment, or donate a
building, that would be great!  We don't, so far.  So purchase is a
future plan not a feasible one right now.

> possibly way off topic, but is commercial real estate likely to be
> 'splittable' or would a whole building be affordable (i guess one could
> rent excess space)?

There exist commercial condominiums.  They're not very appropriate for
NB right now, and I don't think in the future either.  They lock you
into a certain footprint and are not liquid (you may be ready to move,
but you're locked into a specific space).

Buying a building (never mind renting out parts of it!) is an enormous
undertaking.  We're an entirely volunteer organization, and many of us
like it that way.  I don't see any reasonable way for us to buy at this
point in our development.  Maybe in 2 or 3 more years we'll have a
better feel for how much space we'll need in a steady state, or we'll
find a good deal on a building that works for us.

Note that there are plenty of interesting tax questions around owning
real estate once we've achieved tax-exempt status.  Some questions we
will have to explore in depth if/when we are actually looking at
ownership:
 - property tax exemptions
 - renting to tax-exempt versus nonexempt tenants
 - IRS restrictions on self-dealing (renting to members makes them ask
   if we're just a tax dodge)
 - hiring a property manager

-andy