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✊ Coworking impact.
👵 Reflecting on 11 years of B-corp-iness #
Hub Australia share some reflections from their B Corp adventure since 2013, as they prepare for their fourth recertification.
🅱️ Cloudworks becomes a B-Corp too #
Verónica González Jöhnk shares that Cloudworks have joined the growing group of flex space brands that have become B Corp certified.
📰 Coworking news & views.
✅ Coworking comes with a health and wellness amenity built in #
In this snippet from a recent Preferred Office Network webinar, Bryce Hill from Office Evolution reminds us that "we all offer a health and wellness amenity, which is community" and how that helps fight the loneliness epidemic.
Yes Bryce. Yes!
🔨 OG operator busts 6 flex space myths for asset managers #
Christophe Fahle shares the 6 things 10 asset managers got wrong about flex space and coworking. This insightful piece followed conversations about improving occupancy in badly performing office buildings by leveraging flex spaces.
In short, flex space is not just about hot desking; it isn’t one-size-fits-all; it isn’t a quick fix; it’s affordable; it actually improves cash flow; and has a measurable environmental impact.
Are these objections you’ve heard from asset managers before? Any Christophe missed?
🪑 The rise of the desk-less office #
Daniel Davis shares how interior design firm Hassell prepared an (almost) desk-less office for one of their clients. Its interesting to see how a 26k sqft space was separated into 3 core zones termed "arrival and meet", "workspace" and "tech". The middle layer was designed like a "private coworking space", and although there’s places and booths to get work done in, only the tech team get dedicated space and the 24 full time desks within the entire office.
With design changes like this, you can see how and why giving employees access to 3rd party coworking spaces away from the HQ is getting easier and easier.
🇱🇺 Why Luxembourg’s coworking sector is being held back #
Patricia Casal Marques shares that even though "coworking spaces play a vital role in the development of the economy", local industry leaders still face struggles around flexibility and support.
In the piece the Luxembourg Workspace Association shares that after some preliminary research, there are just 56 spaces across the country. What’s holding back growth, according to Gosia Kramer, founder of The Office coworking spaces is 3-fold: small market size, conservative approach of real estate sector and the huge bureaucracy required to set up a business.
It’s also noted that government’s unwillingness to cooperate with the sector is also an area of frustration. Claudine Bettendroffer, Country Leader of the Silversquare coworking space notes that under the current law, managers of coworking spaces need an ‘establishment license’.
👸 How we built a thriving IRL community of women entrepreneurs #
Elevate Coworking is a coworking space all about supporting women entrepreneurs in their mission to have it all. Optix share five key takeaways from their conversation with Maggie Blackham on what it takes to build a thriving community of women. They were: defining ICPs, embracing pivots, extra added value, tech automation, and what really guides their space.
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💻 Coworking technology.
💷 Fractional office co hits £2M milestone #
Jon Dweck shares the fractional office marketplace Space32 have hit the milestone of £2M in rental revenue for their office hosts.
Trend watch: Fractional offices are a fast-growing flex space product we’re following closely here on TWIC.
🎨 andcards becomes Spacebring #
The increasingly popular mobile-first workspace management software previously known as andcards has rebranded to Spacebring. The team also shared notes on their renewed vision, values and brand identity.
🖱️ Workspace tool gets new features to cut down tab-toggling #
Syncaroo shared that their Assistant browser extension now includes on-screen "helpers" for LiquidSpace, Hubble, Deskpass, Tally and Instant Offices with development and testing already underway, and alongside multi-location space teams, for OfficeHub, Office Freedom, Workthere, NearU and Rubberdesk (UK).
These "helpers" browser extension (for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge) expands their live-date sidebar functionality with on-page overlays that make checking and updating important information like prices, descriptions and opening hours faster, without needing to check any other tabs, sheets or dashboards.
📈 Coworking data.
🇬🇧 In the UK, larger spaces are seeing higher occupancy #
Bobby Sodeiri shares that according to The Instant Group‘s recent findings, current occupancy rates throughout the UK are 80% (up from 79% last year).
But what’s interesting is that occupancy rates at spaces over 30k sqft in size are significantly higher than those in spaces under 10k sqft. Nationwide the difference is 89% for over 30k vs 79% for under 10k, whilst in London the numbers are 86% vs 78% for over 30k and under 10k respectively.
In other splurge of percentages, they note that that "58% of landlords expect at least 26% of their portfolio to be flex by 2030".
🇮🇳 Local flex space TAM in India set to grow to $9B by 2028 #
Private equity advisory firm Avendus share that India’s flex workspace market is projected to reach 126M sqft by 2028, up from 61M sqft in 2023.
The 83 page report also digs into the fat that in 2023 the split between premium and economy flex space was 50/50 of the collective 7% market share. By 2028 they predict that the approx 12% of market share will be 60% premium and 40% economy solutions. According to their research, local operators’ total addressable market (TAM) was $3.5B in 2023, which with a CAGR of apprx. 21% should hit $9B in 2028.
🇺🇸 America’s CBDs and coworking #
CoworkingCafe researchers revisited last year’s analysis on the US central business districts (CBDs) with the most coworking spaces.
Despite top CBDs seeing contractions in supply, the podium remained unchanged with NYC in the lead with 161 spaces, albeit with 17 less spaces across Midtown and FiDi since 2023. Chicago came in second with 55 spaces in and around the loop (representing more than half of the city’s spaces), and Washington DC came in third with 54.
Half of all U.S. downtown coworking spaces (370 of the roughly 720 centrally located flex spaces) were concentrated in eight major CBDs this year, while in 2023 half of the national CBD inventory was concentrated in just five business districts.
The local supply-demand balance drew some interesting patterns on the maps of Las Vegas, NV, San Antonio, TX and Atlanta, GA – who all stood out for their low concentration of coworking spaces within their CBDs – less than 9% of their total coworking inventories.
🤝 Coworking market moves.
🇪🇸 New coworking space in Barcelona with Cathedral views #
Aticco have announced a new 6k sqm coworking location, which is set to open in October. According to the piece, Barcelona is the top Spanish coworking market with 315 spaces (in 2023), followed by Madrid with 225.
😳 Coworking franchise adds 250k sqft to network #
John Arenas shares that Serendipity Labs have added 250,000 sqft of flex space to their network over the last 12 moths.
For the record: the link within the post does seem like a sponsored piece, that’s also behind an email-gate. Either way, the growth of franchised coworking options is worth keeping an eye on.
🇮🇳 Indian operator aims to double size over next 18 months #
315Work Avenue shared an update that due to high demand, they’re looking to double their footprint over the next 18 months. The firm currently manages 2M sqft across 40 location in Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, and Pune.
💰 Blackstone exploring $1.9B sale of coworking group #
In what seems to be exclusively email-gated content Seeking Alpha, Bloomberg and The Telegraph report that the PE firm is having ‘informal talks’ to sell The Office Group for $1.9B.
ICYMI: Blackstone acquired a majority stake at a valuation of $640M in 2017. Merged with Fora at a $1.9B valuation in 2022. Now run 70 locations.
🇲🇾 Malaysian operator launches 8th location with 100% occupancy #
WORQ officially launched its eighth coworking location at Sunway Putra Mall in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. The 20k sqft location has achieved 100% occupancy since its soft opening in January this year.
Co-founder and CEO Stephanie Ping noted that their strategy is to build locations on train lines, aiming to be within 10 minutes of where people live – sharing that many of their members have switched from driving to taking trains to work.
🇹🇷 Turkish gov. ministry turns airport into tech hub project #
Turkey’s "Industry and Technology Ministry has spearheaded the Terminal Istanbul project, aiming to transform the area of Atatürk Airport, which was decommissioned approximately five years ago, into a hub of technology and entrepreneurship through the establishment of centers within its terminal buildings."
Part of the project is establishing Turkey’s largest ‘technopark’ which will include office spaces, incubators, accelerators, coworking spaces and labs. I don’t see who was tapped to run these spaces, but will be watching closely.
🇩🇪 Operator bids farewell to their pilot location #
John Neilan shares that Tuesday Coworking are closing the first location they launched as a pilot bootstrapped space in 2016. The brand will continue to operate their 3 other locations in Berlin, and are hosting a farewell party on April 19th to celebrate the impact that first space had on the business and it’s community.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
Mark Dixon from IWG shares about their continued rapid growth, their "network coverage strategy" and how the whole narrative about "going back to the office" is wrong, as people are going increasingly to offices that are more convenient to them and reducing as much of the commute as possible.
Tim Rowe, the founder and CEO of Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) joins Frank Cottle on the Future of Work podcast to dive into how intentional industry focus and community-building can rejuvenate struggling cities and lead them towards a prosperous future.
Michael Kovacs joined Caleb Parker on the #WorkBold Podcast to discuss the transformation in office space investments towards flexible workspace solutions, Castleforge’s own flex space brand and their recent white paper.
Jamie Russo digs into what lessons coworking spaces can learn from hotel hospitality hacks, and how they can be applied to make business more responsive, personable and successful on this episode of the Everything Coworking podcast.
David Arraya joins Gio and Jamie to discuss the hospitality paradigm, customer experience levels and the challenges in the coworking industry’s service sector on the Flex Uncensored podcast.
📆 Coworking events.
💬 Convo: Attracting perfect-fit members to your space #
March 29: How do you attract perfect-fit office members to your coworking space? Let’s chat about it! Join us for a free, informal, community conversation with fellow workspace operators and coworking pros around the world.
👋 Belonging happens here #
April 2: Learn about the Belongfulness project and how your space can get involved with fighting the loneliness epidemic.
🇺🇸 GCUC in SLC #
April 9-11: GCUC is hosted in Salt Lake City this year, use code TWIC to get 20% off your passes before March 31st.