Casey Kinsey and Lofty Labs are on the move again after one year in a prime, but small, space in downtown Fayetteville
Kinsey moved Lofty Labs, a web development consultancy, to a 1,400-SF third-floor space at 1 E. Center St. on the Fayetteville square in late October 2015. The company plans to move this October to 3,000 SF at 509 W. Spring St., which is in Fayetteville’s entertainment district.
When Lofty Labs moved a year ago, Kinsey said, he had two full-time staff members and four contractors. Now, he has six employees as well as four contractors.
“We’re still growing,” said Kinsey, the founder and president of Lofty Labs. “The space is bigger than we need today, but we need to be somewhere we have space for growth.”
Kinsey said the space is in a building that has expansion possibilities, so if Lofty Labs continues to grow, it can just expand at the same address without having to move again. The East Center Street space was coming up for a two-year release, and Kinsey didn’t want to commit to that with the expectations Lofty Labs would outgrow the space within a year.
The new space also has approximately 1,000 SF of event space and a secure entrance for after hours. That is important, Kinsey said, because the company often has meetings and strategy sessions.
Kinsey said Lofty Labs is also expanding its business focus from software engineering to include more work with Big Data software design.
“It is a really big growth area, and we really like these types of problems,” Kinsey said. “It’s a really good niche to be in.”
Kinsey said Lofty Labs is still on target to hit $750,000 in revenue this year and he hopes the new space and expanded services can help the company reach $1 million in 2017. Kinsey has said before he’s not interested in growing Lofty Labs into a huge company.
Kinsey said that when he started looking for space, he was surprised to find such reasonable rates in the entertainment area. He believes it is because landlords wanted a business less volatile than restaurants or clubs as tenants.
The one drawback to the location, Kinsey joked, is that is it next to Cork & Keg and a stone’s throw from Dickson Street.
“We’re going to be a bunch of drunks,” Kinsey said.