Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1343128
WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM FEBRUARY 24 - MARCH 2, 2021 UCW 13 COVER According to a 2020 research study by coworkingresources.org, an expected 5 mil- lion people will be working from coworking spaces by 2024, a 158 percent increase since 2020. e need for facilities to provide cowork- ing spaces is already being addressed in Fayetteville with current and new offices sweeping in. Fayetteville's newest coworking venture called e Hub is owned by Tyson Commer- cial Real Estate. e space, located at 109 Hay St., is set to open in March, and join existing spaces like Revolutionary Coworking and e Common to accommodate the increasing need for coworking facilities. "e Hub is Fayetteville's community connector and offers a turnkey experience and workspaces for business owners and entrepreneurs in our area," Henry Tyson, co-founder of e Hub, said. "It's a space to incubate an idea for an emerging company, a place for people to get together and do busi- ness with one another all while spurring each other on towards accomplishing their goals." e 3,500 sq ft. coworking space will offer small office spaces, desks, storage, confer- ence rooms for meetings, patio space, and options for designated parking with the goal of flexibility for customers. It's a membership model said Clark Rine- hart, consultant for e Hub. ere is a monthly option, or folks can also come in and use the space for the day or week, Rine- hart said. Rinehart owns a coworking business in Ra- leigh and says his expertise is the layout and design of such spaces helps him make rec- ommendations for the Fayetteville market. While there are other great providers in Fayetteville, Rinehart said e Hub aims to establish a premium working space with all the amenities people expect in a professional office space. Due to pandemic social distancing restric- tions, e Hub will accommodate about 55 to 60 spots for coworking. e facility will provide premium coffee, dedicated parking, high speed Wi-Fi and staff on site to help with any issues. Our team has worked really hard to create a premium and professional environment that will foster growth from the heart of the city, Tyson said. e Hub is offering scheduled tours and information to potential customers and can be reached at http://hubfaye.com/landing- page/ or their email hello@hubfaye.com "Is the traditional office space dead? No, but a hybrid model having flexibility — like you can work from home and then have a place perhaps even a small footprint compa- nies had prior to the pandemic — that's why I think these models will thrive," Rinehart said. "I do think there is a market for coworking spaces in Fayetteville, especially downtown, lots of small businesses, military, entrepre- neurs and people who have been running very successful companies from home who are yearning for these types of spaces." e Fayetteville Cumberland County Eco- nomic Development Corporation's CORE Innovation Center located in the PWC build- ing downtown offers tech-focused coworking spaces. e Core Innovation Center is little differ- ent than a coworking space. Designed for government contracting and energy compa- nies, it places emphasis on those doing busi- ness with the government, said Robert Van Geons, President/CEO of FCEDC. Launched about 18 months ago, it hosts military contractors and technology compa- nies with FCEDC's that share their primary focus of recruiting and developing new busi- nesses for Fayetteville. e effort was designed to support the adoption of advanced technology in the Fay- etteville-Cumberland County area and work to retain innovative entrepreneurs, he said. "I think that it's a very exciting develop- ment for our community to have various coworking spaces, many that are currently successful and many that are starting up," Van Geons said. "It provides options for people that are teleworkers, entrepreneurs, startups." Kyle Simms, who rents a space out of Revo- lutionary Coworking located downtown said he works for a medical device company based in Oregon. "e company hired me, and I didn't want to move to Oregon, so they let me stay here in North Carolina, so the company picks up my rent space. It's a good flexible way of giving me an office," Simms said. "e biggest rea- sons I need an office is for personal meetings, small groups and the conference room space for larger focus groups." As a member, Simms describes one perk of getting to use 20 hours of conference room time every month at Revolutionary Cowork- ing. When he was working from home, it would cost $700 to $800 to rent a conference room at a hotel. "I was already working remotely out of the coworking space since 2017 before the pan- demic," he said. "I have had an office there since, but now I use it more just because the kids are at home and remote learning and it's made it a bit difficult to work from home." Revolutionary Coworking offers differ- ent membership levels, for more info visit https://www.revolutionarycoworking.com. While family may be a distraction for some who work from home, others can feel a sense of isolation working from home. Some work- ers want the option to come work in a dedi- cated space two to three days outside of their home, Rinehart said. "Bringing people who have certain interests and affinities together to really create this greater sense of 'we are in this together' and we want to see this innovation hub emerge from the heart of Fayetteville," Rinehart said. Van Geons said there is absolutely a market in Fayetteville for coworking spaces. "If you look at the Commons, they are expanding their coworking space on Morgan- ton Road, e Hub will serve more everyday folks, and Revolutionary has more short-term folks as well," he said. "Each of them is serv- ing a different audience and there's room for a lot more here." KEYURI PARAB, Editorial Assistant COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com 910-484-6200. Coworking spaces offer opportunities for business and employees by KEYURI PARAB Coworking facilities in Fayetteville offer employees spaces for office work, collaborative meetings and conference room areas as seen in these pictures of e Hub, scheduled to open on Hay Street in March. Other local facilities include FCEDC's CORE Innovation Center and Revolutionary Coworking.