Week 27, 2026

Maxime Barbier, CEO of Timeleft, says most coworking spaces look great but lack a reason to keep showing up, so a venue with no recurring activity is not yet a community. He argues members connect on the third Tuesday in a row, not at a one-off launch, and if they cannot name what happens every week you still only have a venue.

Ask what weekly ritual your space gives people to return.

Heather Gray at Unify Energy says flex operators often split one building energy bill by floor area, which is risky when margins depend on precise costs. She makes a strong case for sub-metering per office or suite – which lets you recharge amenities accurately, build real usage into renewals, and show tenants the true cost of leaving for a traditional lease.

The pitch is property-sector fluency plus flexible billing across SPVs instead of square-foot guesses.

Zoe Ellis-Moore at Spaces to Places moderated an Operational Real Estate Summit panel on June 23 with Samantha McClary (British Council for Offices), Andrew Butler (FigFlex Offices) and Luke Trusselle (Dorrington PLC).

The thread was flex maturing as operational real estate, with landlords building in-house brands like FigFlex at roughly 150,000 sq ft and turnover up 600% since 2022. Retention now depends on service quality and commute fit, not just shorter leases.

Renato Lessa, founder of 22cowork in Portugal, lists seven upgrades members now expect beyond desk, WiFi and coffee: private bathrooms, a content room, covered parking, standing desks and ergonomic chairs, natural light and air quality, 24/7 access, and a real kitchen.

His view is that spaces still running 2019 specs will fall behind on retention. Use the list as a practical amenity audit.

AI company Databricks, with 10,000+ employees in 20+ countries, often enters new European markets via coworking before signing HQ leases, leveraging operators like Techspace in Berlin, Morning Coworking and Station F in Paris, Networkia in Spain, Industrious in Frankfurt, Convendum in Sweden and Spaces (IWG) in Milan and Zagreb.

While they do often shift to dedicated campuses, this presents a growing opportunity for operators who can serve the fast-scaling tech firms seeking to de-risk their new market entries._

Paula A. Madrid, founder of Blue Panda Office Spaces in Brooklyn, argues many therapists, attorneys, consultants and healthcare providers want private, neighborhood workspaces more than open networking floors.

She sees the next flex generation balancing privacy and control with community, not defaulting to shared tables. We’re seeing more and more pperators serving independent professionals shifting towards closable offices and quiet/focus zones.

Despite (or maybe because of) the massive growth of the flexible workspace industry, a bunch of myths about coworking still persist. Some were never true and others may have been true a decade ago but they no longer reflect how coworking has evolved.

Cat Johnson aims to set the record straight…