CoHabitat preps for relocation in the Red River District

CoHabitant, the nonprofit startup community and shared workspace for entrepreneurs and creatives, is moving from its current location on Commerce Street to a new and improved location in the Red River District in late summer/ early fall.

The move takes the Cohab facility from 610 Commerce St., where it has been for the past three-and-a-half years, to 500 Clyde Fant Parkway, Suite 200, under the Texas Street Bridge in a space previously occupied by Brother’s Seafood Restaurant.

John Grindley, executive director, said CoHab has had a good experience in its current location and tried to purchase the building or get an extended lease, but that didn’t work out, prompting the need for a new space. After two years of searching, they found one when the city of Shreveport re-acquired the Red River District and the previous restaurant location opened up.

The new space will have a better layout with additional meeting spots, lockers, an outdoor patio and common area, a workspace separated from the workshop areas, as well as a kitchen incubator and place for caterers, pop-up kitchens, culinary classes and more.

“We’re helping ourselves this way and helping to re-vitalize the Red River District, too,” Grindley said. “This gives us a way to hit the reset button and grow to do more. There will be everything you already love about CoHab, just more of it and better organized.” One of the most exciting new features of the facility is the kitchen incubator, where budding chefs and caterers can try out their restaurant skills before committing to a place of their own.

“Since it was a restaurant before, there were hundreds of thousands of dollars of kitchen equipment there already. We thought, ‘It’s organic to the space. Why rip that out? Let’s just make it part of the business model,’” Grindley said. “These kitchen incubators are popping up all over the country. It’s like a timeshare for kitchen use. You can just book however much time you need.

“The incubator has been the worstkept secret since we signed the lease,” he added. “We’ve had everyone from caterers to people looking to start restaurants. What’s great is this gives those people the chance to open a temporary restaurant using a commercial, health code-approved kitchen without having to sign a lease themselves and take out a big loan.

“We see people here with great culinary ideas, but they don’t have the resources or a proper kitchen to cook out of, and their dream is being hindered by not having a commercial kitchen or being able to meet health code and tax regulations,” he said.

Micheal O’Boyle, who runs the Gulf Pig Underground Dinner Club, is the kitchen consultant for the incubator, and Jim Hayes, a local movie prop consultant, is handling design for the whole space in the style of Moonbot and Blade Studios, while Grindley and Jessica Schiele, director of programs and marketing, have been coordinating logistics for the move.

At one floor and 7,500-square-feet, the new space is a little smaller than the two-floor, 10,000-square-foot space they have now but is at the same time an extension of CoHab’s current first floor, which is really all that’s needed, Grindley said.

Twin Engine Labs and the businesses on the second floor graduated out of the space some time ago, so the second floor was no longer required.

“We’re rightsizing ourselves,” Grindley said. “It’s a better layout and usage of the space, with some great design elements. We aren’t trying to outdo ourselves, but we’re taking a hands-on approach to make sure this new space is very cool. It’s sort of a steampunk, Jules Verne look with a lot of old wood mixed with the new, some industrial stuff, a hacker bar and just a lot of neat ideas.”

A new, simplified membership model with single rates will make it easier to join for current and new members. Grindley said the move has prompted a spike in membership, and they hope to double that number to about 200 people working out of the space regularly while also bringing in several hundred more for meetings and workshops.

For more information, visit www.cohab.org or call 759-7997. – Eric Lincoln