A building community: Stakeholders discuss potential ‘makerspace’

An exterior view of Cummins engine testing buildings at the Columbus Municipal Airport in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. Mike Wolanin | The Republic

Plans by Cummins Inc. to end its leases for two buildings at the Columbus Municipal Airport are leading to a new idea of creating a “makerspace” there.

Cummins now uses the two buildings to test engines, but in June the lease will end and the company plans to consolidate the work to another facility, said Columbus Municipal Airport Director Brian Payne.

When looking for a new tenant, the option of renting out the buildings to an entity to use it as “makerspace” is being discussed.

“It’s an opportunity for people to get together who have similar interests in creating,” he said. These interests could be as diverse as sewing, welding or creating “gadgets or widgets,” Payne said.

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The airport has had discussions with makers and individuals from local higher education institutions about the possibility of using the space for this purpose.

Makers, as well as representatives from both Ivy Tech Community College — Columbus and Purdue Polytechnic, have formed a “guiding team,” Payne said. This team is looking into ideas for what a Columbus “makerspace” could look like. Ivy Tech Chancellor and “maker” Steven Combs said that they also hope to have Indiana University Purdue University Columbus involved with this team.

The Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce has also been involved in “makerspace” discussions.

“It won’t be the chamber’s project,” said chamber president, Cindy Frey. “… We will support the project, but we certainly see the potential for it to not only support innovation and entrepreneurship in our community, but also the education of the thousands of students who are on that campus.”

She said that through Velocities, the chamber’s partnership with the Mill Bloomington and Elevate Ventures, they are able to “manage resources … to drive the growth of innovative, high-potential companies.” The entrepreneur-in-residence for this partnership, Cy Megnin, is among those who have toured the buildings.

“We see this as a space that could potentially support students, artists, hobbyists and entrepreneurs,” Frey said. She added that Bryan Rushton of LHP Data Analytics & IoT Solutions has also offered to “convene conversations about next steps, as a volunteer.”

“A team of us are going to get together and sort out next steps,” she said. “Who the users might be, how much money we might need, just putting together a business plan.”

Frey stressed that the various groups, representatives and individuals involved with “makerspace” discussions are in preliminary conversations rather than official deliberations. She said that engineers from Toyota Material Handling USA and the Indiana Small Business Development Center have also been involved in informal talks.

Combs said that Rushton will likely lead the guiding team and that the team might include representation from Toyota. When news gets out about the potential “makerspace,” Combs expects people to come “out of the woodwork” and get involved. This will be helpful, he said, as they will need smaller working teams to look at different pieces of the project.

“We’ve got lots of subcomponents that all have to come together to form this larger plan,” he said.

Different ‘makerspace’ models

There are many different types of “makerspaces” including corporate spaces, university-owned spaces that are just for students, and community spaces, Frey said. She said that if the new “makerspace” is a community space, it would operate as a nonprofit.

“We kind of haven’t gotten there yet,” she said. “But that enables the organization to go after some grants and maybe some corporate donations. There might be companies in town who would love to give access to their employees or would like see this thrive, because of the hands-on experience it might give students, who will someday be their workers.”

This could be done in several different ways, Combs said.

“It can be community-sponsored, or it could be membership-sponsored. So you could have a community of makers who come together, form a 501(c)(3), and they manage and maintain and track out the strategies for what the ‘makerspace’ will be. Or it could be a community resource, where the community provides that resource and then they provide maybe a fee to join, or they have industry and manufacturing partners that help support it, as well as potentially a city or a county.”

While most “makerspaces” are membership-driven, Combs thinks that a Columbus “makerspace” might start out as a mixed model for several years, with corporate sponsorships some providing support until membership has grown enough to fund it in perpetuity.

Given the high concentration of mechanical engineers in the area, a “makerspace” could possibly help meet the needs of local “motorheads,” Frey said.

There are “makers” everywhere in this community, Combs said.

“When they’re not working at Cummins, they’re tinkering with something in their basement or their garages. So the’ makerspace’ would be a place where they could come and share that, again share their skills and be able to just create a really rich environment of makers locally.”

Combs said he appreciates the educational possibilities of a “makerspace” — in addition to providing tools for makers, these spaces can also offer programming on how to develop projects and skills and a place to share ideas.

A ‘perfect opportunity’

The “makerspace” is the main option the airport is looking at for these two buildings, Payne said.

“We’ve talked about the possibility of just leasing the individual spaces to individual businesses,” he said. “But again, the problem with this point is that all of the electric is tied back to one meter. … It’s really not broken up into individual spaces.”

The industrial buildings are the perfect opportunity for a “makerspace,” Payne said. He expects that the potential lease length for the “makerspace” would be at least five years.

“It’s got some of the features that you would want already built into a ‘makerspace’, like this ventilation system or giant garage doors that you can move in and out,” Frey said. “It’s the kind of raw space you could go into and sort of make your own.”

Cummins seems willing to leave behind certain equipment it no longer needs, Combs said.

“Also, as they clean out, they’re repairing the building and putting it back into shell shape for us,” he added. “… It works out, cost-wise, that maybe there won’t be a whole lot of investment in the beginning to get it started. I think we’re going to have to do some improvements to make it where we envision it in five years, but that’s what comes from the guiding team and the membership, to decide how that works.”

The buildings’ close proximity to the airpark campus is a plus, as it adds to the numerous possibilities of the space, Frey said.

“There’s opportunities for people who love to do this as a hobby, students who would like to get some hands-on experience, artists who want to make something, but don’t have the studio to do something and don’t have access to the tools that they need,” she said. “It could be a business incubator. We could potentially … section off pieces of the building for some startup companies. We could have a large space where we have meetings or lectures or demonstrations and teach people new skills. So it’s definitely a place of learning, of exploration and tinkering.”

What’s next

Payne said he expects the guiding team to make a presentation to the aviation board at some point in the future.

“I don’t necessarily have any timeline for when that could happen, but I believe the airport board would certainly like to see something within the next few months, just so if it doesn’t work out financially, we will know prior to the lease ending date,” he said.

He also said that because the airport does not receive property tax dollars, they want to ensure that they are still making “a return” out of the buildings in order to help support the airport’s budget.

Combs said that the next step will be to develop a business plan and present it to the airport board for their approval to move forward with exploration of the project. The team will probably go before the board in March or April.

Frey felt confident that the “makerspace” is something the community wants to make a reality.

“We think, because of COVID, we’ve got a little bit of time here to reimagine what life would look like beyond,” she said. “And I do think people will be hungry for a sense of community. They’ll be looking for ways to get out of their house and connect with other people and have new experiences.”

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Anyone who is interested in the idea of having a "makerspace" and wants to get involved with the effort can call the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce at 812-379-4457.

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In 2015, the Bartholomew County Public Library added “the Digital Underground,” a "makerspace" for digital art. According to the library’s website, the space includes digital recording software and hardware, a green screen with video camera, iMacs with Adobe software, two 3D printers and analog video digitization services.

The Foundation for Youth has a "Maker’s Studio" for its Boys & Girls Club.

In 2019, the Chamber of Commerce hosted "Meet Your Makers," an open house for various creative spaces in the community. Frey said that there was "a mailing list of over 250 people who attended the event," which showed a strong local interest in "makerspaces."

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