Support SearchParty Coffee's 75-day challenge, future growth

I'm Bob Reddy. I have been roasting coffee – as a serious hobby – for over 25 years. Now I roast from my own small business roastery, SearchParty Coffee, in Champaign–Urbana, Illinois. I and my wife, Kathy, moved back to Urbana in 2022. Check out the website: https://www.searchpartycoffee.com Read my motivations to roast coffees. We now have monthly subscribers, a pop-up coffee counter for events, and our coffees are featured in the best supermarket in Champaign, with two more stores in the works.

In one week, the SearchParty Coffee funding campaign has reached 17% of the goal of $15,000! To meet an Illinois requirement not previously communicated to me, my coffee roastery has to obtain a city water and sewer connection, rather than use the mobile hand-washing station that is in place.

SOME GOOD NEWS: After getting more estimates for bringing sewer and water connections to my small roastery to meet the State’s requirements – costing upwards of $20,000 to $30,000 dollars — instead, my commercial landlord has offered me another space that has existing water and sewer lines! It is raw space. It has its own door to the street, which is great. And the monthly leasing cost will stay very low.

Raw space means I will need to build a new roastery interior: floors, walls, ceiling, exhaust duct, electrical lines, plumbing, etc. Then I will have to dismantle and move my existing facilities, equipment, and inventory — making the journey outside to 100 feet from my current location. I am doing as much of this work as possible myself, to keep costs down. The State’s health inspector has OK’d my plans and we are “GO” for this better location.

I am well acquainted with the various costs for such a move and rebuild, and I have increased the campaign goal to $15,000. This should cover all costs and improvements, and get the roastery back on a firm footing. Now the solution is no longer a moving target! It's just moving! And we are 17% of the way to this goal! Please share the campaign with your friends.

Rather than seeing it as a sudden crisis, I am using this moment to get the roastery to the next level, including a few other infrastructure improvements and some funds to build the marketing program. Donate what you can! A $75 donation gets you a SearchParty baseball hat and one bag of fresh beans.