The Build Out...

To get the build out going, our plan of action is to start by building the support tower, then once the lumber is delivered, put up the support beams, and frame in the basic structure. We've given Kris Johnson the daunting task of guiding the build out process and making sure everything is built to specification, and that we have all the supplies we need to stay on track. Kris is the man.

Thanks to everyone for the community feedback regarding the wall build-out plans.

We've received lots of great feedback from members, access pass holders and other interested climbers and it's been extremely helpful. Based on feedback, structural restrictions, and the amount of investment money we have available for the build-out, we've made some adjustments to our initial build-out designs.

We are now planning on ...

• moving the 60° and 50° walls around.
• smoothing out some of the transitions to reduce right angles.
• moving the cave opening to the front of the tower and opening up the cave wall next to the 45° to allow for exit points on two sides
• Building a stalactite feature to utilize the support for the corner of the cave
• Angling the top-outs to make them more interesting than flat surfaces
• Opening up the side walls of the 50° and 60°.
• A prow feature on the corner of the tower.

Operation City Approval, Success!

The kind folks at the Minneapolis permit office have approve our change of occupancy to "assembly" and issued a permit to build. We now have our building permit from the City of Lakes. The Bohm building management team has started the process of replacing the industrial sliding door with double doors that can tie into our keycard system. They have requested that no one be in the space while they are working on the doors so they can maintain a safe work area, and we will oblige. After the doors are installed, we can start building.

With this knowledge, we are wholly confident that we will be open by April 1st, 2011!

We have had an overwhelming amount of offers from people who are excited to help out with the build-out. Your support is greatly appreciated! We are specifically looking for people with building skills and experience. If you have either of those please let us know. We are planning on getting a calendar up on line to let people know when we will be working on the build, and what phase.

January Sale Success, and Our TODO list

Thanks to all who bought a 1-Year access pass during the January sale! We have sold 65 memberships, and 42 1-year passes so far with quite a few people who will be buying when we open. Thanks also to all those who purchased stock as this is what we need to complete our build out.

We were hoping to get $20,000 for our initial build-out, but we made our minimum bare-bones build out amount of $16,000. That's enough to build (but not for all the cool stuff we want in the gym). Please contact us at info@mnclimbingcoop.com if you are willing to pitch in a few bucks to help cover any additional build-out costs. For smaller amounts, you can use the DONATE button to the right. For larger amounts, you have the option of purchasing stock certificates. Please contact us for details.

We have some more news on the Climbing Coop. We've met with the city a few times now, and we've been ensured that our wall plans are good, our occupancy and exits are OK, and now we just have to wait for the paperwork to go through. When we last met, they "said" it would be about 10 days go get the paperwork through.

We've placed the order for the flooring and the order for our lumber is all queued up and ready to go. We're itching to start the build, but we need to make sure that the last of our ducks are in order first.

Taking all of those things into consideration, we should be able to have the leased signed and the city approvals within a week. Add to that a 4 week build-out and we hope to be open Mid-March!