CoworkingCafe’s latest analysis explores how live-work-play (LWP) developments have expanded across the US over the past decade. They tracked 542 developments completed between 2016 and 2025, along with 94 more projects in the 2026-2029 pipeline, to see how this building model is evolving nationally and across major cities.

The 542 LWP developments spanned 129.45M sqft. 2025 alone saw 67 completed projects. Residential remains the defining feature of these projects, averaging 62% of the sqftage nationally, compared to office (27%) and retail (11%).

The number of coworking spaces located within these developments in the top 10 cities for LWP buildings, rose from 35 in 2022 to 56 in 2026 – a 60% increase – highlighting the growing connection between flexible work and mixed-use environments.

With 119 developments, New York City has the largest LWP footprint in the country, well ahead of other major markets. The city also has 17 coworking spaces within these properties, reinforcing its position as both a mixed-use and flex office leader.

Several smaller markets stand out for coworking integration. San Francisco, for example, has just 7 developments, but six include coworking, giving it one of the highest coworking concentrations in the study. Meanwhile, cities such as Rochester and Philadelphia stand out for relatively large office footprints in their live-work-play projects, but no coworking presence so far.

Spacebring pulled off a pretty remarkable IRL survey, asking 300 coworking leaders what their single biggest forecast for 2026 would be. It’s worth skimming over the notes that way too many leaders to tag have shared.

The major 6 trends? Rise of "super-hubs". Consolidation at the squeezed middle. AI wiping out borking stuff. Wellness > office space. Community-driven retention. Corporate migrations.

Annie Draper from Hines joined Kurt Patrick (from essensys) and Gio on the Flex Uncensored podcast to talk more about her journey from Carr to Hines, the launch of The Sq Collection, trends and more.

Hector Kolonas chats with Annie Draper about the idea behind The SQ, how/why it’s evolved into The SQ Collection and how Hines is thinking about flex from the perspectives of product, tech, utilization and scalability on the the new and official TWIC LinkedIn page.

(PS. you can now also use this page to tag the team in interesting posts, ideas, or discussions you think we should share with the wider audience).

Hines, a globally recognized real estate leader has been a head of the pack on flex workspace strategy for quite some time. And now, it looks like it’s once again taken another big leap. Leveraging their own proprietary app, they have launched The SQ Collection (pronounced square). Here, they can offer direct to consumer access to a variety of services (flex workspace, onsite community teams, health and wellness amenities and even food and beverage.

This is a GAME. CHANGER. If you’re interested in learning more about this exciting and innovative play, be sure to check out our quick behind-the-news interview with Annie Draper here (or in the discussions section of the newsletter).