An Idea for you to chew on

[Denise Gardner]

Along with my partner (who is a Director of Photography), I have a commercial building in Northeast Minneapolis with renters who are in the TV/Film business. I thought I'd come on this forum to see if what I have might work for some folks in this group, or in your extended communities. My renters have independently owned businesses, and take care of themselves. I am looking for photographers to do the same.

Basically, I am looking to offer an opportunity to 4 photographers. The idea is for 4 photographers to collectively lease our sound stage/studio. The studio/sound stage has 12-foot-high ceilings and covers over 1000 square feet. There is an additional 1000 square feet of very slick common space, a conference room, kitchen, etc.

The cost for a group to lease this space for 1 year? $2000 total per month. Split 4-6 ways, this can make sense.

For the last 10+ years, we have rented this studio out for $550 per day. My thinking is that this group could conceivably turn around and rent out the space for just 10 days a month and gross quite a bit more. At $550 a day, that's $5500. I just want to keep up with utilities and taxes on the building, and leave the profit ring to someone else.

I want to help put the group of photographers together, and would welcome some feedback from the people here.

Here is a link to a photo gallery of the spaces in our building, including the studio. 1828 Jefferson Studio Photos

Thanks for looking at this, and I look forward to your (happy, positive, supportive!) feedback.

Denise