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!

Access Pass Sale This Saturday!

Hey climbers – we're giving you the opportunity to get in early and save big on Access Passes to the Minnesota Climbing Co-op, opening soon. Save $100 on our 1-Year Access Passes (normally $350). On sale now until January 16th! And get your one-time $20 Membership too! Cash and checks accepted.


Saturday January 8th 2011
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
1620 Central Ave NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413

$20 Memberships and $250 1-Year access passes will be on sale! Bring your checkbooks and avoid the PayPal fees tied to the online purchase form. You'll also be able to get all of the paperwork out of the way as we will have all the forms you need to sign printed out and ready to go.

We will have a table setup in the common area right next to Diamond's Coffee shop. Grab some coffee, say hi, check out the space for the gym, look at our build out plans, feed us your ideas for the build out, and purchase your membership and access pass all in one fell swoop! Oh, and don't forget to check out BrickWorld!

Can't make it? That's okay…just click onto mnclimbingcoop.com now and purchase your Membership and Access Pass via Paypal today.

You may have heard that there was going to be an art aspect to our pre-opening pass sale but due to the busy holidays, communication with the building managers was limited at best and as it turns out, renting the space for a one day art show is too cost prohibative. Luckily we are located in the Arts District of NE Minneapolis, so we'll have quite a few more opportunities for art shows coming up. We definitely want to do something durring the NE Art-a-Whirl, so we'll be listening for ideas!

Climbing, Legos, Art, and Discount Passes!

Mark your calendars for Saturday, January 8th, from 4-7 pm as we will be hosting an open house event in the Thorp space. A number of local artists will have their work on display for sale at the event. Why the 8th you ask? Well the 8th just so happens to fall within the two weeks we are having our limited time sale for access passes at the $250 mark. That way you'll be able to purchase a pass, hang out with friends, check out the space, see if you can find any art that sparks your interest, and see the enormous lego collection!

What? Lego collection. Why yes! Our neighbors at Brick World happen to have a very large lego collection. Lynn made a video of the enormous collection while viewing our space a while back, and it is entertaining and impressive. The lego collection is open from noon to 4pm, which happens to be right before our open house event, which goes from 4pm to 7pm. So come early, check out the legos, and then head on over to the MN Climbing Coop space!

As there will be art, and climbing passes for sale, don't forget to bring your checkbooks! If you want to send your check with a friend, we'll update the post with all the information you'll need to send along.

A note regarding the purchase of access passes: All money from the sale of access passes will go into a escrow account and will only be spent on running costs once the gym officially opens it's doors. This means that if the Gym does not open by July 1st, 2011, all of your money you spent on your 1 year access pass will be returned to you by August 1st. Once the gym does open it's doors, your pass will be good for one year from the date the doors open.

If you are interested in contributing money to help us get our doors open, as this is not part of the 1 year pass sale, please use the "Donate" button on our blog, or on our website. If you have questions about contributing to the MN Climbing Co-op, please contact one of the board members, or send an email to info at mnclimbingcoop dot com and we can help you out.

250 Bucks for a Whole Year?!

That's right folks. We've re-ran our numbers and boy-o-boy do we have a deal for you!

We will be able to offer one year passes for $250 for a limited time. If you miss the first deal, you'll be able to get a pass for $270 for a limited time after that. If you miss both of those, then you'll be able to get a pass at the standard rate of $350 per year, or $60 per month.

Just to make sure this is absolutely clear:

• $250, 1 Year Access Pass on sale January 1st - January 16th 2011
• $270, 1 Year Access Pass on sale January 17th - January 31st 2011
• $350, 1 Year Access Pass anytime after that
• $60, 1 Month Access Pass anytime after that

If you did not purchase a one-time membership for $20 (probably at the comp) you'll need to purchase one at the time you get your access pass. It's just like the one-time membership fee to REI. Buy it once, and you're good for as long as you frequent the Gym.

Because the access passes will go on sale before our build out is complete, we will hold all of the money in escrow and we will not spend it until the we pass inspection and the doors are officially opened. If anything should possibly happen where we are unable to open the gym, 100% of your money you spent on that access pass will be refunded to you. We certainly thought of everything, didn't we?

Where can you purchase your pass (and membership if you need one)? We'll have a few options for you. We are planning to have a showing at the new space during the first two week of the sale and you'll be able to purchase one in person then. We'll also be able to buy one from at least one of the board members in person, we'll figure out the details on that soon. We also will have an online PayPal purchasing option for those who would rather buy their membership in front of the warm glow of the computer screen. Now because PayPal charges us 3%, we'll be passing that fee on to you if you so choose to purchase your pass that way. If you don't want to pay the extra 3%, you can contact us and we'll figure out how you can get a check to us.

More details to come...

What We Learned About Zoning

Ah, this has been an long process of learning many new things. One thing we learned as of late is that of city zoning regulations. After talking with the city and our architect, we discovered that the space at Como and 280 could not pass the barrage of city regulations. It seemed we were more excited about the structure of the space than little things like sprinkler systems, bathrooms, and exit doors. We looked into renovating the space, but the costs quickly added up and we deemed it to be too expensive.

From this we realized that we needed to find a new location, and that we did!

The new location is actually in the same building that we looked at in the very beginning. This space is in the Thorp BOHM building at 1620 Central Ave and it is ready to go! Some of you may have seen pictures of similar spaces in this building previously on this blog. This particular space is not shown on that blog post, but is now being considered the primary choice for us to build in. At 2,660 square feet, we can operate out gym under much more lenient restrictions from the city. This means that all of our money can go into the gym itself, and not into infrastructure. This space also offers the best steel structure to build off of. It is very similar in construction to the 2554 Como Ave space, minus the first lower wing at the entrance, but adds huge bridge crane rails that can support any structure that we could imagine.

We are working with an architect, who is also a climber, to help us through the compliance process with the city. We may not open in January, but we are working hard to be waist deep in building materials by then! For those of you who are interested in helping during the build out, the time is coming, and we will let you know as soon as we are ready!