“Offices need the sort of social milieu that Jane Jacobs found on the sidewalks of the West Village.” –Malcolm Gladwell
I’m intrigued by the number of independent professionals who are adopting the idea of coworking. Maybe I’ll do it myself one day. Thus, I was glad to stumble upon this resource.
While there seem to be several workspace models within the larger idea of shared space, the places that I find most attractive are organized by industry or some other common factor. Take TENPOD in Portland. TENPOD is “a creative services coop of 10 independently owned and operated businesses.”
That milieu is long, long gone from the West Village. You will, however, find a hot pair of Juicy Couture Sweatpants and an underbaked, overhyped Magnolia cupcake.
Advertising a space as a “coworking” space for creatives is essentially a model by which a landlord may generate fairly steady income from a commercial space without the risks and burdens commonly associated with a single relationship to a single tenant.
The landlord will certainly spend much more time talking to prospective tenants than he would otherwise, but he has much greater flexibility and control over who is in the building. When you’re dealing with individuals, the consequences of getting a deadbeat tenant or of kicking somebody out are lessened, and the power dynamic of the owner/tenant relationship stays pretty asymmetrical compared to one in which a single tenant business is paying for everything.
Take another look at the photo of the TENPOD renters. Not exactly “one tough customer.”
In Omaha there is such a place called the Divvy Collective. You visit their Web site at http://www.divvycollective.com. According to the site they are “a group of creatives that have come together to share space.” The Divvy was created Hello Ryan, Bi-‘stO Design, John Henry Muller and Secret Penguin Design. They not only built space for themselves to work but rent out other offices in the building for a very reasonable price.