What do you call a venue that is an art space, club space, a dance workshop space, a performance space, a business meeting space, a historic space, and an eco-friendly space all wrapped into one?  Give up? Roosevelt 2.0. Until recently, this venue was an abandoned building that Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders one used to tie up their horses.  R2.0 is located in the heart of Ybor City, infamous party district in Tampa, Florida. The building has thankfully been rescued and revitalized by Rudy L. Arnauts (20-year veteran real estate developer), Bryan Roberts (Music Recording Specialist turned eco-friendly building developer expert), and Efren Rebugio Jr. (entreprenuer, graphic designer, and skater dude). Their vision is to not only transform this neglected, historic space into a creative space for all to share, but also to transform the way people do business with their pioneering of the ’transparent cost’ pricing model.
Let’s start by describing the space. Bryan Roberts aka ‘GREEN MACGYVER’ is heading up the eco-friendly renovations. He explained that this building was so far in shambles that when it rained, it would also rain inside the building. Not anymore! He has replaced the roof with a soy-based material that is completely waterproof and performs just as good, if not better, than any standard roof.  He also has plans to build a hydroponic garden that will expand across the roof.  If one big garden isn’t enough, they are developing an indoor vertical garden that will rise from the ground floor up the wall, 2-stories to the roof.  The verticle garden will be complete with herbs and tea leaves that they are going to use for their beverages at the bar, that is nourished by a rain water drainage system. If that’s not green enough for you, the AC unit harvests the humidity pulled from the air and the collected moisture is used for their tap water and to flush the toilets. GOD DAMN, that’s Green as Hell Bryan Roberts is also the Captain of Project: ‘Earth Ship’. That’s a whole other blog post/article of its own. Check out his site for the skinny on that. www.eco-techconstruction.com
Rudy, a big, buff business man, is definitely a visionary if I’ve ever met one. Owner of www.thecampus.tv, he breaks it down to me a bit on how the business model works. The keyword is ‘transparency’.  He said any and every deal that is made will be posted on their website, final price included.  His intent is to provide a way to keep everything fair and balanced. It is a way to build trust with your community and begin a perpetual cycle of business and community. The R2.0 team wants to take commerce out of the mainstream, failing monetary system and they are keeping their resources local by adopting a barter and sponsorship way of conducting much of their business. This approach as been very successful, as they have invested $0 in this project so far. That’s right…  I said it… $0.00! Efren seems to bring out the artistic side of the trio with a background in graphic design.  He owns a clothing company called Seren. He re-iterates that the purpose of R2.0 is to be a creative space and a space that fosters creativity, not only in the arts, but for business purpose, since they already have focus groups utilize their space. Efren and I discussed the possibility of hosting adult Hip Hop Dance Lessons at R2.0, something that is surprisingly lacking in the Tampa Bay community. The only thing it needs are some mirrors, but Efren recommended a brilliant idea of having portable mirrors, which is a great way to reflect all that creative energy living within the walls of R2.0.

These guys have set out to do something inspirational, innovative, and world changing. They are really onto something or just ON something… and either way, I want SOME!

Jae Haile’-CHO