Building Update – Change is the Only Constant

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Ever notice how the more people that are involved the slower things go?

I’m thinking along the lines of going out with a large group of friends without a set agenda. It can take all night to decide on and finally get to whatever it is we end up doing. I just read recently it takes 80 months for the military to develop and put into use new software. Somewhere between those two is how long it takes to build a building.

I hope.

People have been asking lately when are we breaking ground on the new building. I’m not exaggerating when I say I have no idea. Here is an update of what has happened so far and where we currently are with the project.

It’s been ten months since we first made general plans and put an offer on the property a few doors down from the current location of the Asheville Yoga Center. It took until the end of March for the deal to close. We weren’t very sure it was going to happen, so we didn’t sink many resources into the site and building design up to that point. I had a pretty clear idea what it would all be like at that time, though.

This is where we get back to the more people involved the slower things go story. By the time you get a general contractor, all the various sub contractors, an architect, a banker, the city staff and a wife that likes to change direction mid-stream, you end up where we are, which is basically back to square one.

We changed plans and dreamed big along the way, and when the cost of what we wanted to do recently came back higher than anticipated, we took the time to step back and check in about it all. That is a euphemistic way of saying we were feeling the stress of putting so much out there on the line in such uncertain times – really feeling it, along with the regular ‘very full life’ stress. The challenge with the process taking so long is that what we base decisions on changes over time. And so new decisions get made, which unfortunately slows the process down (yet again). This is my first experience doing this, and new information comes along all the time. Sometimes big, game-changing pieces of info show up well into the process.

And so where are we now? A bit of a holding pattern really. I had let go of many of the green aspects when we let the building get larger and the budget tighter. For those following along at home, you may remember we went to a two studio room design, intended to house our teacher training program and more classes than we offer now, all in larger rooms. We plan on going back to a one studio room yoga center again and having a second rented teacher training facility. Which brings us back to the drawing board as far as having working plans to finalize a loan and actually build the thing. I’m talking with more folks about green building and I hope we can come up with a plan everyone is happy with.

With my goal of having a finished building by the end of the year long gone, and having decided to not go with the big building, there is not much pressure right now for action, which suits us fine. There is plenty else going on in our lives. I’d like to see some stability and confidence in the economy as well. Things felt like an upswing when we set out, and now they feel a bit uncertain again.

I am grateful that our business has grown, even through the downturn. I feel confident it will be around for some time to come, no matter the building. I am thankful for all the folks that come to class, workshops and teacher trainings. I am grateful for our teachers doing such a great job. The community of Asheville Yoga Center is just awesome to me and I feel very blessed to be a part of it.

Thank you all. I’ll keep you posted on the building.

-Sunny

Sunny Keach lives in Asheville, NC with his wife and 3 rascally boys. He and his wife own the Asheville Yoga Center. Sunny spends his time tending to an urban micro-farm, wife, boys and business. He plays hand drums and does graphic/web design and yoga regularly. He likes riding bikes and longboards, and learning. He also tends to go off on tangents, but likes it that way. You can reach him at sunny@youryoga.com