TechShop to close U.S. locations amid Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing
TechShop’s Pittsburgh location in Bakery Square has been battling financial strains since it reported monthly losses exceeding $30,000 in June, with members eventually joining together to create a new nonprofit to take the place of the co-working maker space.
Now, the entire chain of TechShop locations will close, effective immediately, under Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, according to the company’s Pittsburgh landlord.
Todd Reidbord, president of Walnut Capital Management Inc., told the Post-Gazette that TechShop CEO Dan Woods sent over a memo at 9:14 a.m., detailing the bankruptcy that the organization would file later Wednesday.
TechShop did not immediately return requests for comment.
“We are closing all of our 10 U.S. locations and small corporate group effective 8 a.m. November 15,” Mr. Woods wrote in the memo.
He said locations abroad will not be impacted, since they are owned by overseas licensees.
In addition to the troubled Pittsburgh location, TechShop will close three locations in California — including the flagship location, which opened in Menlo Park, Calif., in 2006. The company also will shut its doors at one location each in Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, Washington, D.C., and a brand new facility in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Bakery Square location has been anticipating a closing for months.
Members have joined together to form Protohaven, a new nonprofit maker space that will try to fill the void TechShop leaves behind.
Devin Montgomery, cofounder and executive director of Protohaven, said the group will meet Thursday to discuss the TechShop closure and agenda items for the nonprofit, which will have to expedite efforts to create an interim work space for members.
TechShop’s Pittsburgh location originally was scheduled to close 15 days later on Nov. 30.
Mr. Montgomery described heading to TechShop early Wednesday morning to work on a project. Once he arrived, staff members told him that the facility was closed.
“It was a terrible disappointment,” Mr. Montgomery said. “A lot of what I’ve been working on is finding a temporary space for people whose companies and jobs rely on this.”
TechShop will coordinate with the bankruptcy trustee to announce dates and times for members to remove all personal materials and projects, according to the memo from Mr. Woods.
Chapter 7 involves liquidating, or selling, all of the debtor’s nonexempt property.
Mr. Montgomery said Protohaven originally had intended to purchase equipment from the Bakery Square TechShop, but because of the uncertainty surrounding the liquidation timeline, the nonprofit will seek out machinery elsewhere.
Mr. Woods said the closures are a time for TechShop to reflect on its pitfalls.
“A for-profit network of wholly owned maker spaces is impossible to sustain without outside subsidy from cities, companies and foundations, often in the form of memberships, training grants and sponsored programs.
“This kind of funding is readily available to nonprofits, and very rarely an option for for-profit enterprises.”
There is precedent outside of Pittsburgh to suggest TechShop’s operations have struggled for years. According to court documents, Denney Cole — owner of a licensed location in Portland, Ore. — filed for bankruptcy in April 2010.
Earlier this year in a strategic move, TechShop had intended to pivot toward helping nonprofits, corporations and universities launch their own independent maker spaces, moving out of the business of owning its own shops.
The essence TechShop’s vision, Mr. Woods wrote, was to develop a network of maker spaces, members, curriculum, standards, instructors, and learning that would fuel the birth of new technologies, products, jobs and companies.
As Mr. Montgomery moves forward with TechShop’s Pittsburgh replacement, he mulls over the future of the maker movement, at large, in a culture of consumerism.
“The TechShop has done a lot to foster [making] around the country... hearing about closures beyond the smaller scope of Pittsburgh worries me about the future,” he said. “I hope it doesn’t quell the spirit of making.”