She was outsourcing coffee roasting and bleeding money. Then she built her own roastery, and grew sales 50%.

Hero Coffee was outgrowing its model. Production happened at other warehouses, and getting beans from those facilities to where they needed to go was expensive and convoluted, a middle layer that ate into margins on every order.

Bringing roasting in-house was the obvious next step, but adding roasting to her cafe locations meant more labor, more team members, more overhead. Traditional Chicago warehouses brought limited parking, limited dock access, and cookie-cutter spaces that didn't fit Hero's brand.

When Michelle walked WareSpace, the clarity was immediate, and Hero Coffee Roasters became one of the first tenants. Management walked the space with her and brought her vision to life within a week: a roastery with music, lights, and the personality of the brand.

Loading docks handle deliveries two to three times a week. Conference rooms double as coffee-cupping rooms. Shared equipment and all-inclusive rent consolidated what would have been multiple bills into one predictable payment, with no hidden fees.

Three and a half years in, online sales grew 50% and in-store sales grew 50%. Bringing roasting in-house eliminated expensive outsourcing, and shedding brick-and-mortar overhead cut costs in half.

Hero Coffee Roasters expanded from one unit to two, with more growth planned, plus 24/7 keycode access for production schedules that don't fit 9-to-5 and a community of business owners next door.