Downtown digs offer a creative environment

By IAN MCINROY

Creative entrepreneurs looking for an innovative workplace environment have a new option.The Creative Space (TCS), located on Dunlop Street East at Memorial Square in the city’s downtown, gives them an affordable office space in a unique atmosphere, according to founder Chad Ballantyne.

“TCS takes away the isolation of home-based businesses and offers a workspace to connect with other business owners with a breadth of new ideas, experiences and best practices,” he said. “Tenants benefit from the synergy produced by talented people working in the same space to create, relate, and collaborate.”

Ballantyne said he’s inviting anyone — new media creators, artists, non-profit professionals and photographers — who can’t afford their own office to consider The Creative Space.

“This is a growing trend around the world, and we’re doing our part to foster the creative economy locally,” he said.

Creative designer Thain Lurk has been a part of The Creative Place since its inception about six months ago.

“It’s a new way of thinking,” he said, sitting at his work space with a view of Memorial Square and Kempenfelt Bay.

“I’m excited to be a part of it. We love helping each other. Rather than being competitors, we work together to get the job done,” Lurk said, adding that he was working out of a more conventional storefront operation in the city’s south end before joining the TCS team.

“It was an expensive way to start a business. This is a better way, without having to utilize a bank with all the financing, loans or paying for signage. You don’t have to go through all that,” Lurk said. “All you need is a desk and a computer and the world is your oyster.”

Chad Ballantyne said TCS offers various options for its partners: one hour for $8, one day for $20 or $250 a month for a desk.

“It’s a close-knit group of companies. They’re not just coming to work, they’re coming to live,” he said.

The future will bring some other activities at the organization.

“We’d like to offer classes and clinics to help businesses grow, as well as low to no-cost clinics to help those people who are marginalized in society. We’d like to reach out to non-profit groups,” Ballantyne said.

Coun. Jeff Lehman, who represents the downtown area, said TCS is a good fit for the downtown area.

“Building on our homegrown talent in the city is an important philosophy. We want to encourage that kind of growth downtown,” he said.

For more information about TCS, call Ballantyne at 252- 2423, or visit www.thecreativespace.ca.