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🎉 Coworking celebrations
🏆 Community Manager of the Year semi-finalists announced #
The Global Workspace Association annual conference will award the winner of Coworks‘ 2025 Community Manager of the Year Award, but ahead of the prize giving Lauren Walker highlights the 3 semi-finalists and shares their stories.
They are: Audrey McKnight @ Venture X San Antonio Northwest, Brooke Dempster at HAYVN Coworking and Kathrin Louis at Carr Workplaces in Downtown LA.
Wildfires! Drunk members! Cancer fundraising! Oh and all their usual duties as well. They are the superheroes of this industry!
👉 Read this.
📰 Coworking news & views.
🛋️ IKEA-backed circular-economy furniture rental startup raises €50M #
Danish-Swedish furniture-as-a-service company NORNORM secured €50M in mixed equity and debt from existing investors including Inter IKEA, Verdane, Banco Santander, and Philian Invest (H&M heir Karl-Johan Persson’s investment vehicle), bringing total capital raised to €170M. Founded in 2020 by former IKEA executive Anders Munk Jepsen and Skype co-creator Jonas Kjellberg, Nornorm rents office furniture to businesses on flexible subscription basis with six-month cancellation notice, focusing on easily refurbished pieces sent to warehouses for repair and re-rental.
The company more than doubled revenue in 2024 from €1.47M to €3.11M and achieved profitability for the first time, operating a circular business model where reuse and refurbishment directly improve margins rather than encouraging higher material consumption.
👉 Read this.
📉 Florida eliminates commercial lease tax effective October 2025 #
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 7031 on June 30, 2025, eliminating both state and local sales tax on commercial property leases effective October 1, 2025, making Florida the last state in the U.S. to end this tax category. The repeal removes the combined 3%-3.5% tax burden (2% state rate plus 0.5%-1.5% local surtax) on office, retail, industrial, and warehouse space that has existed since 1969, saving commercial tenants $2.5B annually while costing the state approximately $1B in sales tax revenue. The tax applies based on occupancy period rather than payment date, with rent for periods after October 1 exempt from tax even if paid earlier, though short-term residential rentals under six months and vehicle/boat/aircraft storage remain taxable under separate statutes.
The elimination represents Florida’s first statewide tax repeal since the intangibles tax ended in 2006 and is expected to reduce occupancy costs for coworking operators, flexible workspace providers, and all commercial tenants statewide.
👉 Read this.
🏢 Google Campus closure sparks local infrastructure debate #
Google Campus announced the closure of its Madrid location, marking the third shutdown of its campus model after London and Berlin closures. The Madrid facility operated for 10 years and supported hundreds of founders since its launch.
Factory‘s COO, Jeremy Bamberg, believes that Madrid’s startup ecosystem, ranked in the top 40 globally by Startup Genome, now has an opportunity to build locally-owned infrastructure serving early to late-stage companies rather than corporate-backed coworking programs.
👉 Read this.
💡 On the convergence of hotels, clubs, and coworking #
Ian Minor, hospitality creator and operator, shared his take on the convergence of hotels, members clubs, and coworking spaces into hybrid hospitality models. He cites Ennismore’s portfolio expansion from The Hoxton to include brands like Mama Shelter, 25hours, Hyde, and coworking brand Working From_, supported by the Dis-Loyalty paid monthly membership program across properties.
Also highlighted were Soho House‘s evolution from banning laptops to launching dedicated coworking arm Soho Works with relaxed workspace rules now integrated into most locations, French operator OKKO Hotels centering properties around club-lounge-coworking spaces, and Zoku designing hotel rooms as micro apartments with built-in workspaces.
👉 Read this.
🔄 Building a coworking content marketing flywheel #
Taylor Mason at talemaker put together a thorough guide called "Attract, retain, activate" for anyone who is curious about how content marketing (actually) works at a high level, how it can benefit coworking businesses, and how to make all the pieces fit together into a spinning flywheel.
This long-form guide (and video) explore the three phases of the content flywheel and the forces of leverage (i.e., tools and outputs) you can apply to get it spinning.
👉 Read this.
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💻 Coworking technology.
🚨 PSA: First malicious MCP server found stealing emails #
Koi discovered that "postmark-mcp", a popular email tool for AI assistants downloaded 1,500 times weekly, has been secretly copying all emails to the developer’s personal server since its latest version. The tool worked legitimately for 15 versions before the Paris-based developer added one line of code that BCC’d every email to a rogue email address. The breach impacted an estimated 300 organizations, sending between 3,000 and 15,000 emails per day to the attacker.
Syncaroo breaks down the news a little more, and focusses on what all coworking spaces, partners, practitioners and platforms leveraging MCPs (or planning to) should do to address this breach and security risk.
👉 Read this.
📱 ChatGPT introduces new AI-first way to interact with your apps #
Jeremy Fine from OpenAI shares their big news that ChatGPT can now interact with your fav. apps (along with tools for devs to create new interactions).
What does this growing ecosystem mean for coworking? Remember how we were looking at how coworking desks and meeting rooms may be booked through Google Maps? Well this demo shows how hotels (via booking), flights (through expedia), taxis (via Uber), restaurants (via OpenTable), and more can now be requested and managed through the AI chat interface that attracts 792 million weekly active users and 5.5 billion monthly visits.
👉 Read this.
📱 Alliance deploying millions into driving meeting bookings #
Alex Garza shares that Alliance Virtual Offices are introducing a new instant booking platform and mobile apps.
The post notes that the firm are investing millions into the program designed to provide operators with instant revenue via streamlined booking flows, direct integrations into inventory systems, and a focus on quick booking and rebooking of meeting rooms.
👉 Read this.
🛠️ Spacebring unveils platform updates #
Spacebring hosted a webinar showcasing new features for its workspace management platform.
The updates include Command Palette navigation with full Arabic and RTL language support, customer management upgrades and billing automation. New resource management tools include direct plan sign-ups, equipment booking, custom schedules, and detailed occupancy analytics, while community engagement additions feature AI-powered Promote posts and file attachments in support tickets.
The platform also added integrations with Brivo, Avigilon Alta, HubSpot, Calendly, and global payment systems, plus add-on products including Floor Plans, Room Display, and Reception, with a mobile app for administrators scheduled for future release.
👉 Read this.
📱 Cobot launches apps alongside integrations and features #
Cobot released its Members App on App Store and Google Play in September 2025, allowing users to book resources and manage reservations from mobile devices at no additional cost beyond existing Cobot subscriptions.
Their platform updates this month also include new discount capabilities, guest check-in and drop in functionality. A new report offers booking analytics with six-month forward visibility as well, in addition to updated integrations with GoCardless.
👉 Read this.
🔑 Are you still issuing (and trying to track down) key fobs? #
Jane Robathan declares that the case for card-based coworking entry is officially lost. In this piece, Nexudus digs into how (well integrated) smart access control not only unlocks your operations, but bumps your eco-creds too.
👉 Read this.
📈 Coworking data.
🇦🇺 77% of Aussie operators report growing revenue #
Flexible Workspace Australia released its Flex Futures 2025 report noting that 77% of Australian operators reported revenue growth last year, while 60.5% saw profit growth.
The industry association stated confidence across the coworking and flexible workspace sector is rising, indicating the Australian market is thriving rather than merely surviving.
👉 Read this.
🇬🇧 UK flex operators discuss identity shift #
Spaces to Places hosted a Voice of the Customer research launch breakfast featuring executives from Clockwise, Workspace Group, and CRE firms CEG, and TSP, collectively representing 80M+ sqft of UK office space.
The panel discussed post-COVID workplace transformation from collective "worker bee" culture to individual identity-driven decision-making, with data showing businesses choosing office locations based on decision-maker proximity dropped from 25% to 10% since the pandemic.
TSP revealed it abandoned its building app portfolio-wide after finding technology must integrate seamlessly into existing customer behavior rather than forcing new habits, while CEG reported its fastest growth comes from "room service" customers who customize their service bundles.
👉 Read this.
🛏️ On the one daily decision, made millions of times #
Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak explores how every morning, millions of employees make a single decision that shapes the future of office real estate.
While they "just" decide about whether to go in, or stay home – that daily choice has become the real test of office demand. Daily attendance data reveals LOUDLY how workers’ choices are reshaping commercial real estate.
👉 Read this.
🤝 Coworking market moves.
🆕 New CEO at Work.Life #
It was announced that Work.Life COO Paul Dutnall will be moving into the CEO role. He’s been with the organization since 2019 where he was Head of Operations.
Congrats to him on this new role overseeing locations serving 8,000+ members!
👉 Read this.
🍒 Cherry Hill gets a new Premier #
Premier Workspaces announced their expansion with new 24,590 sqft Cherry Hill location.
Amy Fuller, the firm’s President, notes how the hub that is just 10 minutes from Philadelphia will support South Jersey businesses through 85 offices, virtual offices, meeting rooms, reception services and more.
👉 Read this.
📱 New on-demand meeting pods surf in with Yotel #
Fresh off Edinburgh-based SWURF‘s installation of private meeting pods at Edinburgh Airport (two units at gates 2 and 20), the on-demand workspace marketplace have announced a new partnership with Yotel Edinburgh (one unit on Queen Street), with Yotel becoming the first hotel globally to introduce their pod concept for both hotel guests and SWURF app users.
The one-square-meter soundproofed pods feature encrypted Wi-Fi, smart LED lighting, air filtration systems, and ergonomic seating, bookable from 30 minutes upwards via the SWURF app. SWURF operates 450+ hospitality venue partnerships with 12,000+ users and has reportedly generated £1.85M in revenue for location partners including Hilton, IHG, and Kew Green Hotels.
The company recently secured six-figure follow-on investment from private investors, Scottish Government’s Techscaler programme, and Scottish Enterprise, backed by Skyscanner co-founder Gareth Williams, and plans to deploy 100 pods across the UK in the next 12 months with additional fundraising planned for early 2026.
👉 Read this.
🏛️ U.S. gov shutdown threatens billions in CRE deals #
The ongoing U.S. federal government shutdown is disrupting commercial real estate activity with landlords facing potential rent payment disruptions if the funding impasse extends past six weeks when GSA’s carryover funding could run out. The General Services Administration confirmed federal buildings will remain open with reduced staff, with September rent payments processed and October payments (due in November) likely unaffected in the short term.
REITs with federal tenant exposure warned investors of potential financial impacts. Federal real estate activity including leasing, contracting, and property sales face bottlenecks with new agreements likely postponed, while fixed-price construction contracts already awarded are expected to continue.
Reminder: the GSA also has multiple contracts with flex platforms and operators, and operators the governments own flex space network.
👉 Read this.
⚡️ Entrepreneurial hub opens in Covington, Kentucky #
Chad Summe shares that SparkHaus has now opened in Covington, Kentucky’s Sims building as Northern Kentucky’s entrepreneurial hub. The project was initiated by eGateway Capital to help scale its portfolio tech companies in the region. The facility also houses eGateway Capital’s office and aims to serve the regional innovation community.
👉 Read this.
🏋 SC space launches combining wellness and performance #
Derek Vitatoe shares that their new space concept called Work at Wheel will be opening in Rock Hill, SC, focussing on leadership development, movement, recovery pls workspace to be productive.
👉 Read this.
🇬🇧 Firm opens 14th location #
Annie Bolgar Smith shares that Work.Life Clerkenwell Green is now open, becoming the firm’s 14th location.
👉 Read this.
🇦🇺 BubbaDesk raising expansion capital #
BubbaDesk‘s Lauren Perrett share that they’ve opened a capital raise for "national expansion, global partnerships and policy-aligned models".
The announcement did not disclose the capital raise amount, valuation, facility sizes, or member numbers, but the firm does have with 8 locations currently operating across New South Wales and ACT and is in final-stage negotiations with one of Australia’s largest landlords for securing multiple sites in Victoria, New South Wales, and Western Australia.
👉 Read this.
🎭 Runway East moves into Covent Garden #
Runway East has signed for 26,500 sqft of flexible workspace in London’s West End at Endeavour House, 189 Shaftesbury Avenue.
The operator has entered into a 15-year agreement on the site, which will provide offices for teams of four to 40 people. The site also features a ground floor member lounge with ‘pitch ready’ meeting rooms.
👉 Read this.
👶🏻 Working Mums Club opens hybrid hub in London #
Jennifer Sutcliffe shared that The Working Mums Club has opened its first location in Greenwich, London, combining flexible coworking space with on-site subsidised childcare for mothers facing high childcare costs and nursery waiting lists. The facility offers 1-4 hour flexible work blocks with concurrent childcare in a community-focused environment, and includes an on-site cafe.
The concept addresses barriers preventing UK mothers from returning to work due to childcare costs that often exceed their income and extensive nursery waiting lists.
👉 Read this.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
GCUC leaders Liz Elam and Stormy McBride joined Kevin Whelan and Taylor Mason on 2 Marketers and a Coworking Podcast to talk about where coworking is going, how they somehow keep putting on events that don’t miss, and how content and community are fuelling the ride.
Michael Korn, co-founder of Blue Garage in Lewisham, joins Bernie Mitchell on the Coworking Values Podcast to dig into the why, where and why now behind their "microfactory" that makes industrial equipment available through coworking-style memberships.
Hector Kolonas goes behind the news with Alison Rogers from Blush Cowork, exploring her journey from creating a community-centric business during the pandemic and her next big move with The Coven.
Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak, at infinitSpace, joins host Frank Cottle on The Future of Work® Podcast to unpack the growing misalignment between traditional commercial real estate and the needs of today’s businesses.
Lauren Perrett, founder of BubbaDesk and Wombee, talks with Sarah Maree on the Coffee, Clients & Naptime podcast about creating coworking spaces with onsite childcare across Australia to help parents balance work and family.
Coworking Marketplace
🇺🇸 For Sale: Coworking Business in Denver, Colorado.
Single location. Breaking-even.
Asking price: $175k.
Thinking of selling your coworking space?
Register here for seller support.