Co-working extends reach beyond downtown in Chicagoland

City ranks 4th in nation with 234 co-working locations, totalling 6.2M sf

IWG CEO Mark Dixon and BIAN CEO Joe Fisher
IWG CEO Mark Dixon and BIAN CEO Joe Fisher (IWG, BIAN, Getty)

With traditional office buildings plagued by record high vacancies amid the remote-work era and market turbulence from multiple headwinds, co-working spaces are starting to proliferate beyond downtown and into Chicago’s neighborhood retail markets and suburbs.

Co-working spaces shared by multiple companies and overseen by a communal manager that handles and collects each tenant’s rent are popping up in unlikely places, including suburban shopping centers, apartment buildings and even a health club in River North, the Chicago Tribune reported.

While demand for traditional office space in the city remains low, hybrid work has become more common, leading to a surge in co-working spaces. 

“We’re converting empty shops, we’re doing warehouses, we’re doing office buildings, we’re doing apartment blocks,” Mark Dixon, CEO of Switzerland-based co-working provider IWG told the outlet. “For us, it’s a period of super-high growth.”

Early this year, IWG announced plans for four new Illinois co-working locations, including three in the Chicago area. Those will be at the southeastern edge of Bucktown at 1918 North Mendell Street; in West Town along a retail corridor at 1200 North Ashland Avenue; and in the northwest suburb of Algonquin, at 1452 Merchant Drive.

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The Chicago area has the fourth-highest amount of co-working space in the country, with 234 locations totaling 6.29 million square feet. At the end of June, there were 6,163 co-working spaces across the nation, marking a 10 percent increase year-over-year.

Co-working has surged in popularity due to its inherent flexibility. Companies can gather several times a week in a shared space, without bearing the burden of high rental and maintenance costs. Plus, most co-working spaces offer essential amenities, such as lounge areas, office supplies, conference rooms and coffee machines.

BIAN, a $15 million private wellness club at 600 West Chicago Avenue in River North, has taken the concept to the next level. In June, it added a 9,000-square-foot co-working space for its members, BIAN CEO Joe Fisher told the outlet. That’s more than a third of the entire building. 

“We did not design BIAN to be hybrid co-working space,” Fisher told the outlet. “But as the world changed, what we saw was everyone using our lounge to co-work. They didn’t want to be at a Starbucks if you were a member of BIAN.”

— Quinn Donoghue 

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