The rental event space inside the 400 West Rich artist studio warehouse has been so popular since it opened in 2013, that the building managers are ready to double down. This spring, a second event room measuring 2,900 square feet will open in a formerly unused adjacent space within the building.
“This allows us to open ourselves up to marketing toward the 500 to 700 person capacity events,” said 400 West Rich building manager Chris Sherman. “We have been catering to the 300 to 450 capacity range.”
Sherman said that while the new event space can be opened up for larger events that utilize both rooms, they can also be sectioned off to host two separate events simultaneously, each with its own separate bar and restrooms. Both event spaces will have exterior access from Lucas Street, and both will have separate access to the existing courtyard patio in the middle of the building.
The existing 400 West Rich event space has already been booked to host 68 weddings in 2016, and around a dozen are scheduled for 2017. Sherman said that the popularity of the event space has been great for supporting the art studio activities in the rest of the building.
“It’s wildly exceeded my financial expectations,” he stated. “I never really thought this would be a wedding venue. A few years ago I figured it would just used be wild dance party space. We did that for awhile, but we just couldn’t do it any more because of capacity. It made sense to encourage the dance parties to go somewhere else.”
Construction on the event space expansion is currently under way. Sherman said that he hopes to have it operational by May.
For more information, visit www.400westrich.com.