About Molly Heyen

Licensed since 2005 Molly Heyen works with commercial clients running their own business and investors.

Her career started in residential real estate and in her pivot to commercial she became her first client. Since 2017 Molly and her husband have owned and operated Gearhead Workspace, the only do it yourself auto shop in the city of Chicago.

Being a unique business in the city she learned first hand many lessons on getting started. The first location they tried to open was easy to find on the MLS. However, they quickly learned the difference between zoning approval and building use. The property was zoned for the use they wanted, but it had never been used as an auto shop before. Many people in the industry; attorneys, architects, and general contractors tried to convince them that it was not an issue. After finding good, well connected advisors and speaking directly with the city they learned that the change of use process would have cost more time and money than they had.

Their next location had already been an auto shop which made licensing a breeze. The location was good, but not quite what they hoped for. When they decided to move inventory for auto shops was extremely low. Molly worked with her network to find a bigger and better space. They found a great location that had always been used as an auto shop, but it had been rezoned as residential and was not grandfathered in for use as an auto shop. They found the process for a zoning change was much easier than it is for change of use.

Living downtown and wanting to take their car to the racetrack Molly and Tim found that they needed to spend more resources on auto maintenance than is typical. Without space to do it themselves or some of the special tools needed for German cars it was getting taxing to have someone else do jobs like brakes multiple times a year. Which is how they came up with the idea for Gearhead Workspace. It’s near downtown to cater to urban auto enthusiasts. Now they have space to store summer and winter tires and can have different sets of brakes for track season and the winter. They’ve been collecting specialty tools for Porsches, BMWs and other brands that customers can use. The shop can support anything from an oil change to an engine swap and Molly and her husband are testing its limits by putting an LS motor in their Cayman.

Having been there Molly loves brainstorming business plans and finding the best properties to help the business thrive. She has a great network of experts to help navigate the city of Chicago as well as the nuances of commercial real estate.