blogpost – rumors

Our lease is up in September, and we’re getting ideas.

Idea #1 is to stay put. Empire has been great. We love the location, the walking circuit from the elevator to the permit office to the post office to the bank, to the coffee, and back to the elevator. Hargett Street is where the action is, and it’s just going to get hotter. And, we love the view – we know Raleigh because we can see it out the great big windows, all the way back to Reconstruction. Maybe make some renovations, a new coat of paint, try to look almost as fancy as the architects on the 6th floor.

Idea #2 is a few blocks away, on the fringe. It’s the neighborhood I always promote first; it’s the street where I dare my peers to plant their ambition, and, moments later, it’s the street where my friends tell me I’m crazy. It has to come down to business sense, but it’s also perspective, and the opportunity to tell a story. It’s a location in the path of progress, and progress is our business after all. I wouldn’t be the first one there. The rent might be less, the parking would be free, the relationships would be long-term. I’d have to brew my own coffee, and we would have to invest in an office bicycle for those runs to the permit office. So, it’s that point where maybe we put our rent money where our big mouth is and see how much a coat of paint can do to change a streetscape.

They’re just ideas.