Judy and Brad Harrison have opened Flat Cap Ventures, offering a variety of meeting spaces in Traverse City. || Courtesy of Flat Cap Ventures
As Kristal Flateau tells it, a lot of people acquired new pets during the pandemic. Traverse City entertainer and entrepreneur Judy Harrison of High Impact Productions and her husband, Brad, bought a building they named Flat Cap Ventures.
It gives them a home for their own endeavors, but Flat Cap Ventures is also available to groups for gatherings of varying sizes. “We’re a multi-use facility,” says Flateau, who handles property management and event coordination for the building that also includes offices and retail. “We have an event space that has a covered patio, and we also have a conference room that has an attached deck.”
Flat Cap Ventures’ Lynas Event Center can accommodate groups of up to about 100 and is equipped with technology that includes a 10-by-14-foot screen with a projector in the ceiling.
“We have full surround sound,” Flateau says. “We also have three cameras so we have the ability to film or stream whatever you have going on, so you can actually have remote attendees for your event, (and) the speakers also carry sound outside.”
Additionally, between 25 and 30 people fit on the patio, with room for 12 in the conference room. While there isn’t a commercial kitchen, a kitchenette includes a fridge, freezer, and extensive counter area where food can be set up buffet style. Flat Cap Ventures can provide referrals to vendors if needed or those utilizing the facility can arrange their own. There’s also an outdoor hookup for food trucks.
So far various businesses have held management meetings, business meetings, and luncheons at Flat Cap Ventures. Flateau notes they’re also cultivating a relationship with Courtyard by Marriott Traverse City.
“They’re only 3 miles from us, so if they have groups that need meeting space, they refer to us,” she explains, “and if we have attendees who need overnight accommodations, we refer back to Marriott. We’ve had quite a few in here.”
The building that had previously housed a variety of businesses had long been empty on U.S. 31 South. Harrison says it’s been decorated to create a modern yet warm atmosphere. There are also plenty of bamboo accents. Brad is a missionary, and one of his endeavors is Goodgaali (the good bike), where team members ride bamboo bicycles to provide necessities, training, and more to help hospital staff and patients in Uganda. “It’s pretty eclectic,” Judy says of the interior, “maybe modern industrial a little bit, but it definitely has warmth.”
A lifelong singer, dancer, and organizer of a long-running local fundraiser called “Swing Shift and the Stars,” Judy Harrison occasionally holds performances at Flat Cap Ventures with her band, ReBooted. She’s also touring around the area with a show called “Remembering Patsy Cline.”
Harrison is excited about the possibilities at Flat Cap Ventures, which she says is part of a growing sector of Traverse City. It’s about a half mile from Turtle Creek Stadium, where the Northwoods League’s Traverse City Pit Spitters play baseball. “There’s a lot of great venues around town,” she says. “We have that niche that this is a growing corridor.”
