We are trying new things under the banner “good business” these days. You know Circle Thrift. You have heard of Circle Kids, by now. Here a a bit of history and updating on Circle Spaces.
When we found a new building to buy at 2212-4 S. Broad, we had just signed a five-year lease with the landlords at 1125 S. Broad. We did not know how anything would work out with prospective buildings, so we kept the building we had. Now we have all this great space. What shall we do with it?
We have a lot of good reasons to hang on to 1125 S. Broad:
- The Hub. They need an office now they have moved to 1125. It’s perfect.
- Circle Thrift. We moved the congregation, not the store. It does well where it is.
- Office and storage for Circle Thrift.
- Office for our burgeoning Good Business efforts.
- Mostly, we have dreams. Our lease has a high monthly cost, but not that high. We hate to part with our sweet venue space.
We are using the space for our mission and we think other people will want to rent the space for theirs. By the end of the summer, we had invented a job for someone who would work on commission to arrange bookings. A couple of weeks ago we found someone to do it: Andy Gill. You can reach him here to help him fill up the calendar and make enough money to justify hanging on to 1125 S. Broad.
So far, we have a couple of bookings and lot of new fishing lines in the Philly region pond. We are a new space and people are just getting to know about us—especially our prices, which are lower than the usual exorbitant rates being charged!
We also have ideas for how Jesus might like to use His building. There is room for dreaming. We are right at the corner of Broad and Washington where a new building is being built and an even bigger one is being planned. New people with new needs and hopes are going to move in. Shouldn’t they see our art, hear our music and make our acquaintance? (Shouldn’t you?) Couldn’t we build the “arts cooperative” we have had in our long-term plans for years from this space? We have a great front door to the south end of Center City and we intend to use it as long as we can.