The main reception desk on the seventh floor of Life Time Work site, a new 39,000-square-foot co-working space at One Chicago in the River North neighborhood.
Keon Asgarpour, who works for Graphite works in The Lounge area at the Life Time Work site, a new 39,000-square-foot co-working space at One Chicago in the River North neighborhood in Chicago on May 12, 2022. “The flex office market kind of led the traditional office market that relies on long-term leases, into a real downturn, but it’s also leading it out,” said Ben Wright, head of flexible office solutions for New York-based SquareFoot — a commercial real estate brokerage that owns Upsuite.
Chodos said more and more established companies are willing to pay a premium for that flexibility, incorporating co-working spaces — once the domain of freelancers and startups — to help with the “accordion of utilization” as employees transition back to an office.“The price you pay for flexibility is in per-seat costs much higher than the cost it takes for you to put the space in place for yourself,” Chodos said.
Lauren Rome, founder of Romer Skincare, works in The Lounge area at the Life Time Work site, a new 39,000-square-foot co-working space at One Chicago in the River North neighborhood in Chicago on May 12, 2022. Under new leadership, WeWork implemented companywide layoffs, cut expenses and began shedding unprofitable leases — just in time for the pandemic to hit in March 2020.
In Chicago, WeWork has 11 co-working spaces covering more than 922,000 square feet, including two new locations this year. In addition to a 93,500-square-foot space opened earlier this month on two floors at 167 N. Green St. in Fulton Market, the company christened a 62,000-square-foot River North space at 448 N. LaSalle St. in January.
“You have some companies that are taking full floors,” Williams said. “Some companies take smaller offices and pair it with our all access product. Whether you’re a large company or small company, the idea is flexibility.”Demand for existing Chicago co-working space continues to lag other major cities, however. Two years after COVID-19 hit, demand per location in Chicago remains 24% below pre-pandemic levels, according to data provided by Upsuite.