TOLEDO, Ohio — A new technology hub in downtown Toledo is looking the fill the void for creatives and entrepreneurs in the area by offering a new shared workspace for people to work, create content, and network.
The Director of Operations for Toledo Tech Loft says he wants to bring the community together by holding events, bringing in great speakers from all around the world, and providing a workspace and podcast room for creatives to flourish.
"The idea was going to the community, seeing who else are big players in the tech world, who else is trying to make an impact in Toledo, and really connect with those people," said Chris Eischen, Director of Operations at Toledo Tech Loft.
It all started with a dream for Eischen.
He says he and his team wanted to provide a space were creatives and entrepreneurs can come together to move the city into the future.
The opportunity came about when Bitwise, a California company that was working on a similar initiative in Toledo, became embroiled in serious legal issues and had to shutdown operations.
Before they were forced to fold up shop, Bitwise was creating coding workforce bootcamps, offering apprenticeships to young professionals, and building websites for local businesses.
Originally, Bitwise was going to expand even further throughout Toledo. They even were well into renovating the historic Jefferson Center building, in partnership with the building's owner, ProMedica Health Systems.
When Bitwise's foray into Toledo came to an end, Eischen decided to pick up where they left off, offering something for the entrepreneurs and innovators of the Glass City while setting off on his own path.
"We're a place for people to come to do different activities, you know, to host events and things that aren't, you're not typically seeing downtown right now. So we're trying to be a platform for those things to occur," said Eischen.
According to Eischen, the Toledo Tech loft will have amenities on the first floor which will include a Coffee Shop and EA sports arena for gaming.
The second floor will offer work spaces, a podcast room, and rentable office spaces for start ups and other businesses.
The company also plans on offering classes and bringing in guest speakers to entice new ideas and talent to the city, something Eischen hopes could boost the city's fortunes in the long term.
"We're going to give, create more families with more expendable income that can then spend that, which that helps the local entrepreneurs thrive, which then helps their vendors thrive and so on and so forth. So that's really my long-term goal is to really help upskill our community," said Eishen.
Toledo Tech Loft official launch date is set for November 1st.
Eischen says they will have events called Loft Talks through the month of October and beyond.
Eischen says the company is refining its approach to funding the venture and is planning on using a donation based system instead of charging users month to month.
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