Renting a house in Iowa for a grassroots base of operations

Everything happens in Des Moines and Ames isn't that far away for the one weekend we will be there. A large building, like an old school would be perfect.
 
That house is not bad, but the price is high. This is Iowa. It is way cheaper than other places. Also parking is not good there.
 
Hello. I am in Iowa and near Des Moines and work in Des Moines downtown. My uncle is Ron Pauls former Iowa Political Director and I asked him to sign up and post on this to help out. He should be along as soon as his account is approved.

Meanwhile, I will help look for a place and offer the suggestion that it NOT be a house. You can find commercial places that you can "live in" and have more space. Houses can get trashed and noise can attract unwanted police observations and make for bad press.

Where as a RPF HQ would be amazing and in the same price. We could also help fundraise locally for it.

Suggested commercial space before and it didn't get any mileage. Agree, it's the best bet - especially a mothballed school or a community center for all the showers, toilets and full kitchen. Needs to be zoned dual commercial / residential though. The sites I've seen don't list this, but prices for commercial property are listed in $ per square foot per year.

-t
 
I was thinking a huge rv would do the trick, plus it would be mobile

There is a thread in here about how to convert a van into a rear projection TV ad mobile. There was an article in Make Magazine about that too. Also, some threads on "projection bombing".

-t
 
You won't see the good ones on the web. You have to know where they are. Also, you can get a temporary zoning exception for a cheap pay off.
 
Suggested commercial space before and it didn't get any mileage. Agree, it's the best bet - especially a mothballed school or a community center for all the showers, toilets and full kitchen. Needs to be zoned dual commercial / residential though. The sites I've seen don't list this, but prices for commercial property are listed in $ per square foot per year.

-t

But will we have the funds for somethign that big?
 
Suggested commercial space before and it didn't get any mileage. Agree, it's the best bet - especially a mothballed school or a community center for all the showers, toilets and full kitchen. Needs to be zoned dual commercial / residential though. The sites I've seen don't list this, but prices for commercial property are listed in $ per square foot per year.

-t

If we could find one, that would be great.
 
But will we have the funds for somethign that big?

You just have to do the math. The dollars per sq ft is pretty low - for example, a warehouse I was looking at the other day was the size of a large grocery store or wallmart and rented for $6 a square foot. Obviously out of our price range but that's for a year. There are a bunch out there that are in the sub-$5 range, sometimes $1 x a couple of thousand square feet and divide by 12 to get the monthly rate.

The $6 a square foot is actually 50 cents sq/ft so a 2,000 sq/ft place rents for $1,000 mo at the $6 sq/ft rate.

-t
 
I'm a college student driving up from Chattanooga, Tennessee. I'd be willing to pick up as many as I can carry on the way there. I'm definitely going to be up in Iowa for at least two or three weeks to help out.
 
I'm a college student driving up from Chattanooga, Tennessee. I'd be willing to pick up as many as I can carry on the way there. I'm definitely going to be up in Iowa for at least two or three weeks to help out.

Awesome.. stay tuned
 
So are we now looking for a larger, more commercial, building? If not, we should go after that last house posted! It's perfect.
 
My other question about commercial space is, Would it have showers?

Good point. And we would we really be able to fill that entire space and get the money out of what we paid for? Can we fill a huge jumbo space for the entire summer effectively? I still think our best bet is with a larger house, and not a commercial property.
 
A large house would be fine. If everyone brings their own sleeping bag/pillow and is okay with sleeping on the floor, it could probably pack 100+ people. Besides, we'll be spending the majority of the time out campaigning, not sitting around the house, right? So it won't matter if it's crowded.
 
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