Why this West Chester company’s tech team works out of Old City

The team behind Traffic Safety Store, a West Chester manufacturer and retailer, had a problem. They couldn’t find tech talent who was willing to commute to their office.

“You could not pay people enough to get them out there,” said vice president Nick Eubanks. So they changed their strategy: they followed the talent.

Last January, Traffic Safety Store’s development team began working out of Old City coworking space Indy Hall, where Eubanks had been a longtime member.

“It made everything exponentially easier,” Eubanks said, referring to finding staffers, as well as temporary contractors to work on projects.

The roughly seven-person development team, which includes some contractors, has since outgrown Indy Hall and now shares a nearby space with MyClin, another startup that moved out of Indy Hall last January.

Moving the whole company to Philly is out of the question, Eubanks said, because of taxes, but more so because Traffic Safety Store operates out of a 40,000 square foot warehouse, where it keeps its inventory.

Though on a smaller scale, the story of Traffic Safety Store’s team is reminiscent of large suburban tech firms like Fiberlink, Bentley Systems and iPipeline opening offices in Philly in part to handle the ongoing struggle of recruiting. Online reputation manager Brand.com also recently moved to Center City from West Chester to be closer to talent.