Moving to portland, need studio/shop space (Milwaukie, Burns: apartment, to rent)

[HburlingameIII]

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I have been living in Nashville, TN for the past year and absolutely hate the place. On the bright side it has made us realize where we do want to live--and that's Portland.

I'm a self-employed artist and one downside to moving is that I will be giving up a couple thousand square feet of studio/workshop space. But I've been working too hard lately, and feel the need for some downsizing anyway. So while I will have to replace some of the space in Portland, I probably won't _need_ more than just the size of a one or two car garage.

So that leaves two options. We can either rent a house that has the necessary shop space (i.e. a one or two car garage/equivalent), or rent a house/apartment that doesn't and rent additional shop space elsewhere (I would slightly prefer the second option--I like having to actually go somewhere outside of the house to work). The work I do isn't all that messy, but includes grinding/sanding, compressor and other machine noises, and some work with torches.

I have a show coming up in May that should pay for the move and living expenses for a while, so we plan on filling up a Penske and heading over at the beginning of July.

What I am trying to figure out in the mean time is where we should be looking to rent. We want to live in the city as close to downtown as possible and not in the suburbs, and I would like the shop to be within a reasonable distance from the house/apartment, so I could just walk/bike/use public transportation and leave the car at home. It seems like maybe something in NW Portland close to some industrial building space I could rent might work, but I am not really sure. I would really appreciate any advice as to what/where the best places to rent shop space would be so I could start to narrow my search.

Oh, and the wife would love it if the rent for the shop space was less than the rent for the house/apartment :-).

Thanks for any help!

[crisw]

What is your budget?

Will your wife be working? If so, what does she do (will she be getting a job before you move?)

Where will the money be coming from if your art doesn't sell?

[oregonwoodsmoke]

You could probably rent a roll-up door industrial space. Those are basically garage bays. Don't expect the rent to be cheap if it is right near downtown Portland.

[SETabor]

There are quite a few small shop-like spaces in SE Portland as well. Quite a bit is located west of SE Grand between the Hawthorne and Burnside bridges (rail accessible) and there's a good chunk between Division and Holgate from Milwaukie to about 26th (bus accessible). I went to Alchemy Cellars on SE 19th and they might be in a space just like you're thinking of.

By looking in SE, I think you end up with more choices for housing - at least more affordable choices for housing and shop space.

[hamellr]

This might help: http://www.portlandartstudios.com/

[HburlingameIII]

Originally Posted by crisw

What is your budget?

Will your wife be working? If so, what does she do (will she be getting a job before you move?)

Where will the money be coming from if your art doesn't sell?

We don't really have a set budget per say, but we are budget conscious and don't want to pay more than we have to.

My wife hasn't been working for the last year, but she misses work, and so has been applying for positions in Portland (mostly research related lab manager positions or statistical analysis positions).

I am pretty well established in my field, so there is basically no chance of not selling out. Most of the pieces for May are already reserved by collectors, and if something doesn't sell my Chinese dealers take anything extra--it was part of the deal I made when setting up a studio in Shanghai.

Originally Posted by SETabor

There are quite a few small shop-like spaces in SE Portland as well. Quite a bit is located west of SE Grand between the Hawthorne and Burnside bridges (rail accessible) and there's a good chunk between Division and Holgate from Milwaukie to about 26th (bus accessible). I went to Alchemy Cellars on SE 19th and they might be in a space just like you're thinking of.

By looking in SE, I think you end up with more choices for housing - at least more affordable choices for housing and shop space.

Thanks a lot SETabor, this is just the kind of information I was looking for! I REALLY appreciate it and will check it out--and if anything else comes to mind let me know :-).

Originally Posted by hamellr

This might help: http://www.portlandartstudios.com/

Thanks hamellr, I checked it out and although right now there doesn't seem to be anything that great (for example carpet is not going to work, and neither is a non-secure shared space), it looks worth checking back with every once in a while.