From the desk of Heather Gregory, Stoke Executive Director
Over the last 6 ½ years, we have established Stoke as a fixture in the community - a big feat considering our rocky beginnings and a global pandemic that had a huge impact on our business and operations. Our membership has grown consistently and we currently have over 150 members at Stoke! We view this as a shared success as we wouldn’t be here without you, and we value all of the ways that you engage in our community and provide us feedback to help us improve our coworking space, amenities, and programming.
We are always thinking about how we can best serve our current members and the creative and entrepreneurial community of Denton as a whole. To that end, we have been pursuing the idea of purchasing a building in downtown Denton for Stoke to move into and are currently under contract to purchase a building at 419 S Elm Street.
This is an exciting opportunity and at this point that is exactly what it is, an opportunity and possibility - not a done deal. There are many moving parts to be able to make this a reality. The biggest and most challenging tasks at hand are finding a tenant for our current space and securing the necessary financing for the new building..
Since we are under contract and actively working to secure a tenant for our current space, we wanted to let you know about this possibility and give you some information about the new space and why we are so excited about it. Below you will find a list of features of the building that we see as a big improvement, as well as some ways that we will be able to expand our offerings.
New Building Pros
90 dedicated parking spaces just for Stoke - NO towing & NO sharing
Closer to the square - extremely close to mexican food, italian food, a cheese shop, and a bakery
Separate kitchen (no longer located in coworking which will reduce noise and smells in the shared work space)
Street facing - easier for your clients and coworkers to find us
No Denton Spin Co music (love ‘em but won’t be sad to leave that noise)
Gender neutral bathrooms
Larger conference rooms (though we are reducing by 1 room)
Improved + private outdoor area - with hopes to bring in food trucks on a regular basis
No Spiral Diner deliveries and spills in shared walkways
More natural light throughout the space
Exterior windows in half of the private offices
More room in general - Stoke will grow from 9,000 sq ft to 14,000+ sq ft
Historic building with cool windows, masonry walls, and a vaulted ceiling we hope to expose
Expansion in Offerings
More creative amenities (desktop workstation, creative licenses, photography setup)
Expanded workshops and educational programming for entrepreneurs - to be located in our new conference room/classroom which will be able to hold 20 people.
Addition of 12 micro studios for artists and makers
Creative reuse retail location on site - expanding our focus a to include more creative entrepreneurs - this will add to our diversity and creativity while still maintaining a professional and productive environment
Room for lots of local art - exterior and interior murals, space for rotating gallery walls
Ability to use parking lot for occasional pop up events on weekends
As always, member care and communication is top of mind and we will share information with you as we have it. Also, we want you to know that we are considering this possibility because we believe that this is in the best interest of Stoke and our members.
Stoke would love to see all of you move with us, should this opportunity become a reality. If you are interested in helping - there are two main ways you can do that.
We need all of our members that would move their private offices or memberships to the new space to sign a Letter of Intent (Linked Here). We are working hard to keep cost to members as close as possible to what they are now, but would expect a 5-10% increase in prices.
If you are interested in becoming an investor in the real estate or know people that might be interested, please reach out to Heather - heather@stokedenton.com.
Please let us know if you have questions or concerns. Please plan to join us at our February member huddle to discuss this and more in person if you’d like. It will be next Friday, February 3rd at noon.