Right now, right this minute, take a look at the person working next to you. Does that person work for the same company that you do?
The chances are increasing that the answer to that question is, or soon will be, no; as coworking is set to take the world by storm.
In a new survey conducted by CoreNet Global and Cushman & Wakefield of corporate real estate executives, 54 percent are looking to lease space from coworking operators. But nearly all of them want to cut expenses and lease terms, and if they haven’t yet they may soon find that coworking is a fantastic solution.
So let’s take a step back and define our terms. Coworking refers to an office setting in which one or maybe several offices or spaces are independently leased.
For the workers, it might be one step up from working from home, or a great way to go to the office without schlepping all the way to HQ. Atlanta workers, see this post.
In some cases, the workers may be linked by what they do, as much as who they do it for. For example, in Baltimore, the Bee Hive has grown organically into a place where technology entrepreneurs collaborate and share space.
For corporate real estate executies, time is, quite literally, money. So the shorter lease terms, flexible spaces and worker productivity gains are, well, money.
Work is less and less dependent on location; although as we’ve talked about many times in this space, collaboration and team work are critically important.
We don’t believe that coworking will take over the need for corporate headquarters facilities, but we certainly see them as a compelling middle ground, offering workers and corporate real estate managers the best of both worlds.