ST. LOUIS -- Less quirk, more luxury is the business model of Industrious Office, a co-working-space developer that is expanding to several cities, including St. Louis.
Construction is underway on a 10,000-square-foot, third-floor space in downtown St. Louis. Industrious Office is spending $1 million to have the operation ready in April and might later more than double its size later to occupy the entire floor.
Unlike co-working places that rent individuals and tiny startups little more than desks, cubicles or merely a seat at a table, Industrious provides glass-walled private offices as well as communal work space. However, don't look for pint-size basketball courts or table games at Industrious.
"We're anti-ping-pong," said Emma Dively, manager of the St. Louis operation. "We're looking for something a bit more mature, a bit more sophisticated."
Hundreds of co-working spaces operate nationwide, primarily in cities that have lively startup scenes in tech and other industries. Co-working space attracts entrepreneurs who have outgrown the coffee-shop Wi-Fi but need only tiny workplaces and want the monthly micro rents to match.
Industrious Office's co-founders -- businessmen Jamie Hodari and Justin Stewart, both of New York -- began scouting St. Louis locations in January 2014. They quickly decided to concentrate their search downtown.
"In general, they wanted to be in the center of commerce," said Dively, adding that they also preferred a place near the city's T-REx business incubator and downtown startups.
Industrious will have 25 offices for one to eight people, two conference rooms, a cafe, a lounge and a 10-person communal workspace. Monthly rent of a co-working seat will be $250. Offices will start at $550.
The hope is to attract a variety of tenants, including tech startups, marketing firms, accountants and intellectual property lawyers.
"We're looking for a healthy variety of businesses," Dively said. "We would love for this to become sort of a collaborative space."
Stewart and Hodari -- both 32 and next-door neighbors as kids -- founded Industrious in 2013. They quickly opened co-working spaces in Chicago and Atlanta. In addition to St. Louis, outlets are scheduled to open this year in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. Industrious also is looking at Nashville, Tenn.; Austin, Texas; and Raleigh, N.C.
Hodari said his firm's "bread and butter" are national companies that are testing a market but not ready to commit to a long-term lease. An example is Pinterest, which is an Industrious tenant in Chicago.
"For a lot of the companies we talk to, St. Louis is on their short- to medium-term list in terms of growth plans," said Hodari, adding that he and Stewart are impressed by the area's educated workforce and flow of venture capital.
For now, the only Industrious-like space in St. Louis is at the Cortex technology district, where Cambridge Innovation Center opened last fall and will eventually house as many as 75 startups, entrepreneurs, strategic service firms and investor groups.
Michael Tomko, a software developer who in 2010 helped lead an early co-working operation in St. Louis, said Industrious' aim-higher strategy makes sense. St. Louis Coworking, a more bare-bones facility, lasted less than a year, but Tomko said much of the failure resulted from a lack of support by the owner of the downtown building where the operation was situated.
Industrious may appeal to local professionals who need space only part time or to out-of-town professionals who work in St. Louis sporadically, Tomko said.
"The idea has legs and if they have a business model that works in other cities, that's great," he added.
SundayMonday Business on 02/01/2015