Last week we finally had our Grand Opening at La Suprema Works & Events.
That’s the co-working space I co-founded here in Tucson last year. Even before Covid rocked our world, it had been a process. The timeline is below:
June 2018 Start looking for a space to lease
August 2018 Lease a small office
December 2018 Find an early 1900’s adobe building that was uninhabitable
January 2019 Start meetings with the Neighborhood Historical Association
February 2019 Lease a small historical building across the street from our property for an MVP – Minimally Viable Product (“Anexo” – the Annex)
March 2019 Welcome our first members to Anexo
May 2019 Plans Approved and Construction Begins
December 2019 Target Open Date
February 2020 Sign New Members for La Suprema
March 2020 Stay at Home Orders Begin and New Members Backout
April 2020 Temporary Certificate of Occupancy Granted
May 2020 Official Move-in Day – with one office member
Looking back now it is not hard to see how it all came to be, but the reality is, it took over twice as long as my business partner and I thought it would take. And it was difficult to not get discouraged during the Summer of 2020 when literally there was no one in the building for weeks at a time.
And yet here we are.
The photo above is the Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce sponsoring our official ribbon cutting ceremony as we kicked off the evening. So many of our friends, family and colleagues came to wish us well. It was a truly magical evening.
Today, we have a building filled with amazing members. We’ve consistently been at 90%+ office occupancy and as people make their way out of their homes, our Flexible and Desk Memberships are filling up. Our courtyard has been used every weekend in October (we hosted our first wedding last weekend!)
And because of the pandemic and the change in work across the world, more people know about co-working spaces than ever before. Tucson, which had only one coworking space, now has several and many of us collaborate and promote co-working together throughout Arizona.
It has been one of my biggest lessons in patience, perseverance, and belief, both professionally and personally. And from a self-described person with “high-control” needs, maybe the greatest lesson of all is the reminder that everything has its own pace.
Last week a new member told us that our building had a soul and our space felt like home. And I knew at that moment that this project was completely worth the wait.
Have a great week!
