TechShop Raleigh-Durham to Close

TechShop Raleigh-Durham is closing, effective Saturday, April 20, 2013.

In an email to MAKE, Dan Woods, chief operating officer and VP of business development at TechShop, said “In the final analysis, it is obvious that the location is not convenient enough to the vast majority of the maker community in the Raleigh-Durham market.”

TechShop Raleigh Durham opened in 2008 as an independently owned maker space, and was later acquired by TechShop, Inc. in late 2011. In the sixteen months since TechShop, Inc. took ownership, the company said it made significant investments to upgrade both the building and equipment in an effort to attract more members and increase revenues. However, after five business quarters, “the store continues to be unprofitable and shows no signs of turning the corner,” Woods said.

Jon Danforth, the founder of Maker Faire North Carolina, which was created at TechShop Raleigh-Durham in 2009, said the hackerspace, referred to as TechShop RDU, was “a rallying point for all of the Triangle Makerati and it holds a very dear place in my heart.”

Danforth said, “TechShop RDU didn’t fail. TechShop RDU sparked a fire in the Makers of North Carolina the likes of which I’ve never seen. It launched projects, products, careers, and grand ideas. It will be sorely missed but the spirit lives on in the forever-changed lives of those it touched.”

What do you think of the news Triangle makers? Are there new makerspaces in the making?