About Cool Space Locator

Cool Space Locator (CSL) was developed and initiated in 1999 as a project of the South Side Local Development Company (SSLDC) in Pittsburgh.  Founded by Kyra Straussman and Deborah Baron, the idea grew into a partnership of three community development corporations (CDCs) in Pittsburgh: SSLDC, Oakland Planning and Development Corporation (OPDC), and East Liberty Development Incorporated (ELDI). 

With the generous support of a number of local foundations and community development corporations, Cool Space Locator set out to see if we could programmatically have an influence on the pattern of business in-migration into the inner city.   Our project relates to several goals that align with smart growth and community development because we are proponents of reusing and recycling existing buildings, or stabilizing the urban grid with new structures, as opposed to building business facilities out in greenfields or sending start-ups to suburban office parks.  We want to influence the way the average CEO looks at her options for a business location so that urban options are considered, requested, and preferred more often.  In the existing climate of funding for community revitalization we see that influencing and harnessing the dynamics of the marketplace may be a more powerful tool than mounting a series of publicly funded projects in the inner city.

CSL connects young, innovative, or transitioning companies with the unique but forgotten spaces in Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania’s urban and walkable communities.  Driven by the mission “no more empty buildings in the urban core”, as a non-profit commercial real estate organization we do more than just place emerging businesses in cool spaces.  CSL also acts as an economic development organization, working with the government, economic and community development agencies, and commercial property owners to help boost the growth of office-based jobs in the urban spaces and walkable communities of southwestern Pennsylvania.  Cool Space Locator believes that by ‘recycling’ forgotten buildings instead of sprawling further from the core, the City of Pittsburgh and the region will be able to attract forward-thinking businesses, retain the region’s creative youth, and create a model for sustainable growth.

Why was CSL founded?

The CDCs from which we were founded were aware of a significant gap in the market; there were companies that wanted to locate in vacant spaces in their neighborhoods but too many difficulties limited their ability to do so.  After a feasibility analysis that involved focus groups and interviews with corporate and entrepreneurial decision-makers, CSL was able to identify the problem.  Most companies use real estate brokers to find office space, but real estate brokers weren’t showing companies the forgotten spaces in urban neighborhoods, and so it became easier for companies to locate in new developments in the suburbs.  In addition, many very small companies were being turned away from private brokers because they were in search of smaller spaces (often under 5,000 square feet) that don't bring big commissions.  It was difficult for small and start-up businesses to find the unique spaces that they wanted to represent their identities.  It is this market failure that lead to the creation of Cool Space Locator.