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✊ Coworking impact.
🇭🇺 100 children-supporting orgs get free coworking #
Edison and Coworking Hungary have built a partnership where the staff at 100 children supporting organizations will be able to book meeting rooms and workspaces free of charge in 15 spaces across the country. Love this!
👉 Read this.
📰 Coworking news & views.
🇦🇺 Ups, downs and upcoming in Australia’s flex space industry #
The exec team at Hub Australia, namely CEO Brad Krauskopf, CXO Rebekah Murphy and CPO John Preece, reflect on the year so far and what changes could be coming to the flex space industry.
To summarize Brad’s notes: demand wants to consume as a service, landlords in Aus deploying fantastic amenities, to balance risks and costs more management agreements being signed, growth in suburbs actually balanced with CBD return in popularity, groups of brands under one ownership with loyalty programs linking them, and maybe shared resources between boutique firms.
John’s notes include ESC being prioritized and more integration of hospitality-driven addons. Whilst Rebekah’s notes cover continual evolution to adapt to changing worker behaviour and expectations, relaunching of Day Offices, renewed focus on workplace wellness with a new program, responding to dip in Work Near Home demand, and blurring the lines between 5-star hotels and premium workspaces.
👉 Read this.
💳 How do we get more money guys/gals in the room? #
Kurt Patrick from essensys, shares a noteable takeaway from last week’s newly formed ULI Flex Office/Experience Product council (I know, it’s a mouthful) in NYC – that we need to get more lenders, bankers and office property investors into the discussion.
The one key topic that kept coming back to me, in-person and via messages, was that the council is tackling the ridiculousness of when underwriting an office building that contains a flex space operator without a traditional lease, it’s valued as $0, even if the operation is profitable and generating more diversified or higher revenue than the lease would have.
Soooo… who should be in the room? Let me, or Kurt, or the… ULIFO/EPC… know.
👉 Read this.
⌨️ A better way to think about this whole 2-to-3 office days shift? #
Now, I know that Jamie Hodari loves to type up notes on $30 totally low-tech device, but I didn’t realize just how eloquent those typed up words were. In a blog post shared this week, the Industrious CEO, shares an arguably better way to look at the two-or-three days a week conundrum.
Well said Jamie. Well said.
👉 Read this.
🇮🇪 Irish investor finds hackspace for founders is REALLY popular #
Eamon Leonard from pre-seed syndicate investor Broadstone shared an update on the Baseline project in Dublin, Ireland that was teased a couple of weeks ago. The "hackspace for founders" is set up as a membership-organization, loosely formed around a shared physical space, and notes on their website that they’re "not co-working, hot-desking, or serviced offices".
So why are they in a coworking newsletter? Because friends, over 66 startups and investors have applied for memberships. Already.
So.. is this the next evolution of investors’ shared office setups, a new competing model to coworking, or an opportunity to partner on hosting graduating founders who outgrow these spaces?
👉 Read this.
📑 Key shares from GCUC conference #
Graham Beck from DropDesk shares some key takeaways from the recent GCUC conference in SLC.
They include urbanization driven by climate change, WeWork’s focus shift to SMBs, co’s using workspace tech increase revenue, space operators more open to list with aggregators (13% of rev compared to 3% from traditional brokers), tech-enabled spaces coming in hot, the surge in variable staffing models, leveraging data mining + pre-marketing when picking markers, and how VO revenue saved some spaces.
👉 Read this.
🤫 Does coworking have a revenue problem? #
Sofia Stolberg from PilotoMail shares another Forbes contribution looking at whether coworking (and it’s built in double-edge-sword of flexibility) has a revenue problem, given that Deskmag is reporting that nearly half of all operators are struggling to turn a profit.
The post highlights some remedies, including more cost-effective lead gen strategies, better retention through hospitality, and a veritable paradigm shift in coworking revenue stacks.
👉 Read this.
🍟 A meeting room, with a side of superized fries please. #
Bryan Froud shares that one McDonald’s in Queen St Mall (Australia) is offering meeting rooms. Whilst this seems odd, it does follow the trend of non-workspace business exploring meeting room side hustles.
From pancake spots, to Starbuck Japan, to IKEA – more and more businesses are dipping their toes or fries into the flex space pond.
👉 Read this.
📝 Do coworking spaces make labour markets more inclusive? #
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development published an article that looks at whether coworking spaces can make labour markets more inclusive. (Yes, yes they can – and do.)
👉 Read this.
🤔 If flex space is perishable, is VO revenue unlimited? #
Mike Sullivan from Alliance Virtual Offices shares an interesting recap on a recent GCUC panel. Taking the note that flex space desks and offices, much like hotel rooms or train/plane seats, are perishable, he looks into how some coworking spaces are generating "unlimited" profits from virtual office products.
👉 Read this.
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💻 Coworking technology.
👩💻 Platform adds utilization integrations for corporates #
Clark Jacobs shares that FlexDesk have released their Utilization Intelligence solution. In short this lets corporations plug in their existing attendance tracking systems and get more engaging results.
Watch this space as more and more flex space platforms are diving deep into surfacing insights from across disconnected data silos – especially around space utilization.
👉 Read this.
📈 Coworking data.
💂♀️ Does London now have 1400+ coworking hubs? #
Angeline Tan shares a lovely review and photos from the recent London Coworking Assembly event, but their opening line caught my attention: "Did you know that London has the highest concentration of coworking spaces in the world, with over 1,400 coworking centers (versus New York’s 550)?"
In my research only 1 source mentions that number, which notes the last update was made on Dec 16 2023. It does note a few sources that themselves seem out of date, but surely there’s a more open and transparent way to track this?
👉 Read this.
🇺🇸 US coworking supply grows 6% as total coverage nears 125M sqft #
According to CoworkingCafe’s recently released coworking industry quarterly report, the national coworking supply continued its upward trajectory, now standing at a total of 6,597 spaces. In contrast with this growth, the average square footage registered a 2% decrease compared to the previous quarter, signaling a focus on smaller coworking spaces across the nation.
They broke down the coworking space stock availability in the 25 largest markets, the spaces’ size and distribution, as well as the leading coworking operators. They also compared the most recent numbers to those registered in the fourth quarter of 2023 to determine the evolution of coworking throughout the nation.
National inventory is up by 6% (or 346 more spaces). LA pulled away from Manhattan, retaining 1st position with 270 spaces compared to to 263 in the Big Apple. Salt Lake City saw the biggest increase in inventory (up 15% totaling 71) while the Bay Area dipped 8% (123 spaces from 133 at the end of 2024).
Total square footage of coworking spaces is up 3% spanning 124.79 million sqft. (up from 113.74 million sqft. at the beginning of 2023). Indianapolis saw the highest rise in coworking surface – 13%, while Brooklyn’s square footage decreased the most by 6%.
The largest operators in the U.S. market remain the same ones as in Q4 of 2023: Regus, WeWork, Industrious, Spaces and HQ. HQ registered the fastest portfolio expansion Q-o-Q – 17% more spaces among the top 25 markets and 14% nationwide. Before Q4 of 2023, it didn’t even make the top 5 leading operators, but it doubled its inventory in 3 months and now it keeps on expanding at a rapid pace. HQ now stands at 91 spaces within the main markets and a total of 190 spaces nationwide.
With regards to pricing, dedicated desks registered a notable dip Q-o-Q, to $309 in April from $322 in December. Open workspaces slightly increased to a monthly median of $150, compared to $149 in Q4. New Jersey, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Indianapolis all log a monthly median price of only $119, while the Manhattan and Brooklyn rates are almost double the national median, at $299. Virtual offices in Q1 kept the same monthly rate of $119. Washington, D.C. registers the lowest median — only $79 —, while New Jersey is the most expensive, at $199.
👉 Read this.
🤝 Coworking market moves.
🇨🇦 Launch adds new location in downtown Winnipeg #
Jason Abbott shares the Launch Coworking Space are opening a 14.6k sqft new location in downtown Winnipeg.
👉 Read this.
🤠 FUSE opening location #6 #
John Herring shares the FUSE Workspace are opening their 6th location, a 33k sqft space, in Austin.
👉 Read this.
🤗 Situu merged into WorkThere to create wide-reaching advisory #
Peter Hall shares that Savills has bought Situu, and are merging it into WorkThere.
"Together with Situu’s expertise assisting landlords and Workthere’s experience of advising businesses looking for space, we cover the entire flexible office spectrum."
👉 Read this.
🇬🇧 UK gets a new flex space solution that fills a widening gap #
Tenant-only advisory firm Denovo, backs former WeWork UK Senior Director Hugo Morrissey in forming Made Real Estate – a new provider of fully-managed, turnkey solutions that fit ‘in the gap between traditional leasing and flex markets’.
The firm says they will curate their own managed office product, and provide landlords with a reliable and quality driven partner. Curious? Me too. I’m watching, and sharing, closely.
👉 Read this.
☀️ Arizona gets a lot more Lucid #
Tosha Bontrager shares that Lucid Private Offices are opening their second location in Arizona
👉 Read this.
🇦🇺 Perth gets another flex workspace location #
The Happy Workplace Group and Jamie Vine share that Liberty Flexible Workspaces is opening a new flagship location in July 2024.
👉 Read this.
🐝 Sustainability-focussed operator pens deal for first UK location #
BE News reports that Koba have agreed to a partnership lease with AEW to launch their first UK site in Manchester city center. The 30k sqft hub is on a 10-year lease.
👉 Read this.
🇬🇧 Landlord’s flex space brand adds another 35k sqft #
Becky Gardiner shared that Storey’s first new space in 18 months is opening soon. The 35k sqft location at 201 Bishopsgate is the latest hub launched by British Lands’ flex brand.
👉 Read this.
🇬🇧 Cubo adds another 18k sqft in Derby #
Cubo will be opening an 18k sqft hub in Derby, their second in the city. This follows news that their sister company Staton Young acquired the building in January this year.
👉 Read this.
🇩🇪 CIC launches Berlin hub #
Michelle Ottey shared that CIC Berlin is launching a 14k sqft location in collaboration with Jamestown at the historic Lohmühlenstraße 65 factory near Görlitzer Park.
👉 Read this.
🎯 Rapidly growing network sets 200 club target #
Michael Tavani shared that Switchyards have raised $5M to hit an almost-audacious target of 200 neighborhood clubs in the next 5 years.
👉 Read this.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
Karen Condi chats with Frank Cottle about how property owners can tap into the coworking boom on the Future Of Work podcast.
Timothy Hasse chats with Liz Elam on the GCUC podcast about transformative impact of technology on personal lives, the genesis of General Provision, and his commitment to visual problem-solving.
WSJ’s Harriet Torry explores the different approaches savvy businesses are providing child care for their employees on The Journal podcast. As offices and coworking spaces overlap, there’s an opportunity here for the forward-thinking landlords, operators and partnerships.
Tracy Beavers joins Jamie Russo on the Everything Coworking podcast to dig into the power of email marketing for flex space businesses and brands.