Images of new store model

Check out the model of our new store (thanks to 3t architects for the images!) We are in the very midst of acquiring loans from our shareholders that will help make this new building a reality... please learn more about the proposed building and consider making a loan of $5,000 or more.

JANUARY 25th, 6:30 PM, working members are invited join us at the General Membership Meeting to vote on the NEW STORE DESIGN!!!

Location: FUUSA’s Emerson Community Hall
(First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany)
405 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY (between Robin & Lake)
(Parking allowed in all SUNY lots across the street on Sundays)

6:30 Social time
7:00 Meeting begins promptly to ensure staff and workers can come

To be eligible to vote, you must be up-to-date with work hours and share payments as of January 15th, 2009. Anyone who wishes to qualify to vote must notify the Member Coordinator, Nate Horwitz, by January 8th.

We need a quorum of members eligible to vote to begin our meeting and are counting on your support – attendance counts two hours toward your work requirements! Grab a friend, spouse, or shift co-worker and come on over! We’ll be voting on the 2009 budget and proposed changes to the bylaws.

Child care will be available, but please sign up your children at the service desk by January 16th so we can be ready for them. If you need a ride to the meeting or would like to pick someone up, please let Nate know by emailing Nate@hwfc.com or calling 482-2667. FUUSA is on the Washington Avenue bus route and a short block from Central Avenue crossing Robin Street.

Agenda:

Social hour/discussion of issues
Meeting begins at 7:00 p.m.

1) Vote on the 2009 budget

2) Presentation of the final proposed design for the new store

3) Election of members of the Governance Review Council

4) Vote on proposed bylaws changes (there are several)

5) Open Discussion.

Budget proposal, propoaws new store design, and proposed bylaws changes will go out via mail to all Honest Weight Co-op members.

+++++++++NEW STORE NEWS 12/30/08+++++++++

Design:

A good deal of the last two months of work was centered on trying to reduce the footprint of the store to an affordable and sales achievable size. The new store has gone from 35,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet. Approximately 23,000 square feet on the first floor encompassing Produce, Bulk, Grocery, Wellness (if you’ve been gone for a month or two, our HABA Department is now the Wellness Department), Cheese & Specialty Foods and a large new Deli/Bakery and their work areas and the warehouse and receiving area. Upstairs is approximately 6,000 square feet of offices, teaching kitchen, community room, meeting room; staff break room and member work area.

Finding the right balance of retail floor space and back room space for each department has taken time, compromise and creativity. Our team, plus consultants from the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) and the Cooperative Development Services went through a dozen or more iterations of the store layout. The particular concentration was on the first floor retail space.

The CMT continues to work on the new Deli/Bakery space and some tweaks to other parts of the store. Upcoming deadlines: Jan 19th- CMT retail approval Jan 20- Facilities Committee approval and final recommendations for the Jan 25th Membership meeting.

The Facilities Committee will be displaying a model of the new store and a place to provide you with timely information at 484 Central. The area will also include a table, staffed by our membership, that will be recruiting new shareholders and talking to shareholders about loans for the new project.

3t Architects and the Committee are also working with NYSERDA initiating a technical study as part of the road to building a LEED certified co-op. (LEED: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) EYP architects have been engaged to work with NYSERDA and 3t to conduct a thorough study of the project to determine which incentives the new building will be qualified to receive.


Funding:

We have over $135,000, including one $40,000 loan, committed in shareholder loans for the project. Our average loan is currently $4,000.
The Loan Committee continues to contact shareholders about loans. They are planning a few “calling parties” at the co-op in the coming weeks. If you’re interested in helping the committee secure the loans we need for our project, please don’t hesitate to call Lynne or Cindee, their contact information is at the end of this posting.


Reaching us….

Email Cindee Lolik at cindee@honestweight.coop or Lynne Lekakis at kandL@capital.net with suggestions or concerns. Drop thoughts in the project suggestion box in the front of the store under the project time line and posted news. We are delighted to hear from you!

+++++++++NEW STORE NEWS 10/30/08+++++++++

Check our latest postings at honestweight.coop. The facilities news is under “What’s New at the Co-op”.

Design:
3T, our architects, along with John Bishop, our construction manager, the Collective Management Team (CMT), the facilities committee, the site engineers, staff, and P.J. Hoffman, a consultant from the national cooperative group have been juggling our store contents around within the original design, trying to maximize the efficiency of refrigeration, product movement, customer movement, staffing efficiency, equipment cost, non-retail use, etc.

We have been winnowing the design this month as our desires do not match our fiscal capability. Each department and non-retail area must be able to make a case for its need for space, estimate sales immediately and in the future, etc. As we move forward, all this is starting to fall into place. In the first pass, the design team was able to reduce the footprint enough to get it into the range we’ve been planning for, and maximize access to the building by truck, bike, and car.

The current design will be available for your review at the Membership Dinner, at St. Sophia’s on November 1. Members of the facilities committee will be available to answer questions. We hope to finalize the design and bring it to you for a vote the weekend before Thanksgiving. Look for a postcard in the mail.

Funding:
Three waves of our 5,000 piece mailing have gone out, and members have begun making follow up calls. So far our average loan is $3,000. We have quite a ways to go to $2 million, but we believe we have a strong commitment to our future success here at the co-op, and we will achieve our goal. Increased sales due to our reset enabling people to shop a bit more comfortably will also help our cash position. We are retaining all our earnings this year in order to prepare for the new store. We feel that an investment in our community that you can actually watch and effect might just be the answer to the economic challenges we are facing in our nation today.

If you would like to help with calling, please don’t hesitate to contact Lynne or Cindee below. If you don’t want to wait for your mailing and wish to make a loan, simply call or email and we’ll get right back to you.

Building Green:
We are still aiming for LEED certification. Our design process hasn’t gotten down to the specifics of our refrigeration systems yet, but we continue to strive for the highest energy efficiency and most sustainable practices we can afford, and we will not lose sight of our mission.

Timing and Tenants:
The Dance Studio is finishing up its lease at the end of November. If you know of anyone needing a very short-term lease (3 months) please contact Cindee. The State is scheduled to move out by the end of February, so at this writing, our timeline is still moving along as planned.

What’s on the schedule next for owners?

 Membership meeting in November. Stay tuned for more info.

Reaching us….
 Email Cindee Lolik at cindee@honestweight.coop or Lynne Lekakis at kandL@capital.net with suggestions or concerns. Drop thoughts in the project suggestion box in the front of the store under the project timeline and posted news. We are delighted to hear from you!


More soon. –The Facilities Committee

New Store News 10/1/08

Design:

Our schematic design, as you know, was presented to the membership in late August. Since then, 3T, our architects, John Bishop, our construction manager, the Collective Management Team (CMT), the facilities committee, the site engineers, and P.J. Hoffman, a consultant from the national cooperative group have been shuffling our store contents around to different ends. The goals are to maximize the retail space and customer movement, energy efficiency, staff efficiency, equipment cost, non-retail use, etc.

Last week we received the current plan and costs, and the committee began discussing ways to keep the costs down as our desires do not match our pocketbooks. This phase of construction happens to everyone, we’re told, and we’re confident that we can make some decisions that will retain the goals we have set and also fall closer to the amount of money that we are comfortable trying to raise. We are still on schedule to finalize the design, and hope to bring you the final plan sometime in November.

Funding:

Our loan task force has sent out the first batch of loan requests and will be contacting you shortly. We plan to send the remainder out in waves over the next two months. We hope that all who are able to loan the co-op money in these trying times will do so. Investing in a local successful business might just be the best way to get through what is happening to our economy right now. We hope to be able to raise $2 million dollars from our shareholders. We are counting on you to make a generous loan.

Membership Matters:

Our August shareholder drive brought in a record number of new members. To support Co-op Month now and in the future, the co-op will be having another drive during the month of October.

Building Green:

We are still aiming for LEED certification. As far as energy consumption, we are planning daylight harvesting, reclaiming heat from cooling generators and reusing it, and on demand hot water heaters where possible. All of our consultants feel that a geothermal heating and cooling system will not be efficient in a building of our size, so we continue to strive for the highest energy efficiency and most sustainable practices we can afford, and we will not lose sight of our mission.

What’s on the schedule next for owners?

Ø Come to a meeting. Stay tuned for more info.

Reaching us….

Ø Email Cindee Lolik at cindee@hwfc.com or Lynne Lekakis at kandL@capital.net with suggestions or concerns. Drop thoughts in the project suggestion box in the front of the store under the project timeline and posted news. We are always delighted to hear from you!

++++++++New Store News 8/3/08+++++++++

*** Apologies for the late posting of this information, folks have been out of town on vacation and we're just learning how to use the blog.

Check our latest postings at honestweight.coop. The facilities info will be under “What’s New at the Co-op”.

What’s new this week:

Building Green:
LEED certification: We completed a two-meeting LEED charette, which is a time devoted exclusively with the architects and engineers and customer to discuss which of the criteria we can meet. We have determined that we will easily achieve certification, and if each one of our maybes can become a yes (this depends on how the construction and our funding unfolds….) we may be able to achieve a GOLD rating. Platinum may not be completely out of the question, but it would be a stretch. Remember the mantra: we will strive for the highest energy efficiency and most sustainable practices we can afford, and we will not lose sight of our mission.

Design:
A schematic design was presented and met with strong support from the facilities committee and the CMT (Collective Management Team). We made a list of issues we wanted addressed and 3t (our architectural firm) is working on incorporating them and presenting a second draft next week. Our store is going to be fantastic, and not only that, but it will reflect our collective values, provide educational space, efficient product management, etc. The schematic design will change as we engage in our discussions, but we will be presenting it at a meeting for the membership on August 17 at FUUSA. You’ll be receiving a postcard with the details shortly, so save the date!

Our Cooperative Development Services consultant, PJ Hoffman, has been reviewing our programming and equipment planning for each department.

Membership Matters:
During the month of August we will be holding a membership drive, for several reasons. The first is that what we have is great, and our mission is to introduce new people to share in it. Other reasons: many people are not aware that our economic structure is cooperative and that they can also own it; we desire to keep our investment local and the more folks who own a piece of it, the stronger we will be; we’d like to broaden our support base before moving into a larger store, and over 60 percent of our customers are not members.

Funding:
Our loan task force is putting the finishing touches on the loan materials for your review. Other co-ops have had great success borrowing money from their shareholders. It puts us in a better position with the larger lending institutions because it’s a concrete way to measure your support. We hope you can make a generous loan.

What’s on the schedule next for owners?

> Come to an informational meeting on August 17, where 3t architects will present the schematic design. The facilities committee will also be in attendance to clarify any questions you might have.

Reaching us….
> Email Cindee Lolik at cindee@honestweight.coop or Lynne Lekakis at kandL@capital.net with suggestions or concerns. Drop thoughts in the project suggestion box in the front of the store under the project time line and posted news.


More soon. –The Facilities Committee

Shareholder Informational Meeting at the Unitarian Church, Emerson Hall (located at 405 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY) on Sunday August 17th, 2008. Social half hour to begin at 6:30 pm, meeting to begin at 7:00 pm. Come and see a presentation by 3tarchitects and the Facilities Committee of the current schematic design for the new store at 100 Watervliet Avenue.

Background

Considerations for a new location for the HWFC:

• Receiving area sub quality
• Sales per square foot maxxed out
• Inadequate parking
  – 47 spaces, oddly configured
  – 50 borrowed from Clearview on nights and weekends
• Access extremely limited

A new space was found at 100 Watervliet Ave in Albany. The advantages of this new space are:

• Corner site – easy access in and out
• Concrete block construction lends to easy remodel/renovation
• Some amenities: water, sewer, electrical, sprinkler system, air conditioning
• More residences closer than our current location
• Many compatible businesses, schools, and nonprofits within comfortable walking distance
• Off the “miracle mile” yet close
• Neighborhood Association supportive
• Space for loading and unloading
  – Site currently has several interior and exterior loading areas
  – space for truck access on left side of building
• Space for over 200 vehicles possible
• Easy to reach from Central Avenue and Everett Road
• Very close to I-90 Everett Road exit
• Two busses stop out front
• Two blocks from Central Avenue, the route with the highest ridership
• Shape is ideal for a supermarket: Square is most desirable; Largest area of this building is 30,000 square feet. Part of it is partitioned for a rental, so around 27,000 sq ft remain. Our plan for a 20-28,000 sq. foot store would easily fit in this space.
• Large enough for extras: flexible community room, demonstration kitchen, café, etc.
  

On Oct. 21, 2007, co-op members voted 189-13 to purchase property at 100 Watervliet Ave. in Albany as a future site for the Co-op. The closing was held on Oct. 31.

After a lively meeting on June 1, co-op members voted 123 to 11, with one abstention, to pursue a design for the new store that presumes building to suit on the 100 Watervliet Avenue site.