The following is a guest post by Amanda Styron, the co-founder of Seed Here, an organization focused on building a stronger community of entrepreneurs and creatives in the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area and across the Silicon Prairie.
You can reach Amanda at amanda@seedhere.org or find her on Twitter, @mandastyron.
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Amanda Styron (left) and Chuck Peters visit in the Vault coworking space. Photo courtesy of Vault.
Downtown Cedar Rapids is getting an office space like it has never seen before.
Vault, a coworking and collaboration space located on the fifth floor of the historic Guaranty Bank Building (302 3rd Ave SE), is offering free community workspace every Wednesday in August for area entrepreneurs and creatives with plans for a full business launch this fall.
Vault is a partnership of Corridor CoWorks and Seed Here. Corridor CoWorks owner Theresa Bornbach has created work environments of private and shared office space in downtown Cedar Rapids over the past seven years. This spring, she emptied the fifth floor of one building to make room for a new environment designed specifically for entrepreneurs and creatives.
At the time, Andy Stoll, Amanda Styron and Scott Swenson of Seed Here were looking for a place to gather entrepreneurs and creatives, and the four teamed up. The result is Vault, a coworking and collaboration space for freelancers, mobile workers, emerging entrepreneurs, sole proprietors, creatives, small startups and office workers who need a productive workspace and an encouraging community.
Vault will be fully operational in November. In August, the space has been open for free Cowork Wednesdays (inspired by Omaha’s Rahul Gupta), and more free opportunities to try coworking are coming in September. The public is invited to bring laptops, work and collaborators to enjoy complimentary desks, chairs, outlets, wireless, coffee and a welcoming community.
(Left: Vault has opened its doors for free coworking on Wednesdays in August. Photo courtesy of Vault.)
Said Coworker Sheila Samuelson: “Coworking at Vault is like getting the comfort of my home, the buzz of a cafe and the colleagues of an office.”
Each month, the Vault team plans to roll out more expanded hours and amenities as they come online. The phased rollout allows the entrepreneurial and creative community to begin gathering and working together and allows time for the ownership team to better understand the community’s needs and develop operation plans. Much of the space and culture will be based on ideas shared with Seed Here by Megan Hunt and Eric Downs, owners of CAMP in Omaha, and the group at Foundry in Des Moines.
For now, show up every Wednesday with your laptop to get some projects done and help build this unique space. Please email vault@cowrks.com with questions and follow Vault on Facebook and Twitter (@CRVault) to learn more about the space.
Vault’s perch on the fifth floor of the Guaranty Bank Building features a view of downtown Cedar Rapids. Photo courtesy of Vault.
