They’ve established a foothold in the local office market over the past half decade. They’ve carved out space in the minds of gig-economy freelancers and corporate executives considering how best to spend their office rent dollars in a competitive labor and real estate market. And co-working and nontraditional office spaces — with their short-term leases, tech-laden conference rooms, on-site coffee bars and other trappings of the modern economy — are poised this year to keep up their momentum and growth in the Denver metro area.
Here is a look at some of the co-working players that recently rolled out or will soon roll out serious square footage in the Mile High City and along the Front Range:
Flight at Taxi
Zeppelin Development’s groundbreaking Taxi mixed-use campus in Denver’s River North neighborhood is already home to a co-working space, Tack Mobile-run Assembly. This spring, Zeppelin will wade into shared working-space waters directly via 40,000 square feet of boutique offices on the upper floors of the forthcoming Flight building, 3575 Ringsby Court. Each office will be between 450 and 650 square feet, company co-owner Kyle Zeppelin said, adding that a handful of shared conference rooms will be mixed in. Amenities include access to the building’s green roof deck.
Expected to be fully leased when it opens in March, Flight will not feature drop-in desks for individual workers, instead focusing on services for established small companies.
WeWork Tabor Center
With more than 200 locations and 175,000 members around the world, WeWork is perhaps the biggest name in co-working. It has made its presence felt in Denver via spaces in the Triangle Building, which is near Union Station, and another along Interstate 25 in the Lower Highland neighborhood.
WeWork says it has 1,600 desks in Denver. On May 1, that number will have grown by 1,200, thanks to a new space on the 25th, 26th and 27th floors of One Tabor Center, 1200 17th St. The space, which will largely be occupied by larger companies, is expected to be fully leased at opening, company officials say.
Spaces Arista and Spaces Old Town
Spaces, an established co-working brand with 20 locations in North America, is charting an aggressive course for expansion this year, with plans to open 20 more offices by year’s end, according to a company spokeswoman. Colorado is part of those plans.
After launching a location near Coors Field last February, the company opened two more Colorado Spaces in December. Spaces Arista, 8181 Arista Place, began welcoming tenants to its 30,000 square feet along U.S. 36 in Broomfield on Dec. 18, and Spaces Old Town, a roughly 14,400-square-foot cousin at 242 Linden St. in Fort Collins, followed on Dec. 29.
Industry RiNo Station
Its Brighton Boulevard space has become a modern office standard-bearer in Denver, but Industry co-founders Ellen and Jason Winkler didn’t stop there. Industry RiNo Station opened Dec. 1 in a 152,000-square-foot former cold storage facility at 3858 Walnut St.
Sixty percent full on opening day, Industry RiNo Station is home to some companies that outgrew their space at the original industry, including Velocity Global, Cloud Elements and law firm Feldmann Nagel LLC, according to leasing director Brady Welsh. The new space features much the same charm of its predecessor — movable glass walls, steel framework, tap beer, pingpong — and unique features such as an “event stadium.”
Catalyst Health-Tech Innovation
A uniquely tailored giant will arrive on the local shared office scene this summer: The first piece of the Catalyst Health-Tech Innovation project finally opens at 3513 Brighton Blvd. in June.
Designed by entrepreneur Mike Biselli and developer Koelbel and Co. as a space to bring together health and technology companies to collaborate and grow amid a rapidly evolving health-care landscape, the 180,000-square-foot first phase of the project will include offices for the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the American Diabetes Association.
But tech firms will be a part of the equation, too. Denver-based ad-tech specialist Choozle this month announced it is taking 16,000 square feet there, after it wraps up a three-year agreement to occupy 6,500 square feet in a more traditional downtown office building. The company has more than 60 employees in Denver now, CEO Andrew Fischer said, but that number will soon grow.
Updated March 7, 2018, at 8:48 a.m. The original version of this story included an earlier opening date for WeWork Tabor Center. The company has now set the opening for May 1.
