Walking into the Bobbin Works in Aug of 2014 (yes, it was that long ago!) is something I will never forget. If you read my first blog post I you know I was not full of optimism upon seeing the BW, quite the opposite in fact. Part of me was looking for a graceful escape like I had made a mistake going on a bad blind date but had to keep going anyway so as to not be rude to the real estate agent who was more than eager to get me on board. Looking back on it more specifically there was a really weird moment first we met and shook hands because two a cars crashed directly up the street at the intersection of Liberty and 14th st. It was more of fender bender with no one hurt but it was starting to the degree that Eury, the real estate agent and me just stopped and smiled at the weirdness of the moment that had just occurred and he even said jokingly “I hope that is not a bad omen.” We both laughed a bit and seeing no medical emergency was needed for the unfortunate accident victims we went to look inside the BW.
Three words come to mind when I first took in the interior of this old factory deep, space & light. The Bobbin Works is not high but it is deep and I do mean deep! You think you are at the back of the building and it just goes on! This was one busy factory back in the day. A little digression is it also gets quite in the BW, like the bricks of the building have conspired to shut out the sounds of the city for the time being. Space was offered to me on the first floor in that would not of had at other locations due to the fact I was one of the first people to call and or inquire about the location before it undergoes a major redevelopment. I could lay out the studio in my mind and not be confined to what was already in there. Its actually interesting how my yoga studio business has moved around in the BW since I first walked in. I had issues with getting my funding for construction which, at the time seemed to create killer delays for my project but it actually made for a better set up in the end. In fact you do visit the Bobbin Works and take a class at the A-Town Yoga Works you might be interested to know the spot I started to look at and consider as the as the lobby area is now going to be the hot yoga room, the lobby you will walk through for the Yoga Works was unviewable at that time as it was packed with appliances that had been stored and left there to basically rot. Eury had been busy selling out the leased space, the upstairs was slated to go in as a after school big day care center which for a potential yoga studio owner to hear can be like music to their ears. It was even better to hear from Eury that the owners of the BW liked the idea of having a yoga studio go in as one of the businesses and wanted to meet if I was serious about being a tenant. Eury also told me a parking lot with at least 24 spaces would go in and be for the building customers on a first come first serve basis. That was one of those key pieces of information that really put me over the top with interest. Almost every yoga studio struggles to get proper parking for their students and being in a busy little city like Allentown is no exception. I was very serious about meeting with the BW owners and suffice to say they did not disappoint me and subsequently became part of my mission to not disappoint them and the community I hoped to create. I almost forgot the third word that came to mind and that is light and how well the BW brings it in through the multitude of windows which numbers over 60. We had lights on for our tour but I was continually impressed how we went through the space where my studio could potentially go and light seemed to make it everywhere without much extra help.
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