SEPTEMBER 2015 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \
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Chicago has 868,000 square feet of co-working space in a
257-million-square-foot officemarket, which is 0.03 percent of
its inventory. DTZ researchers attribute Denver’s rapid growth
of co-working office space to two factors: 1) Forbes ranked
Denver as the second-best city to launch a startup business,
and 2) historically, Denver is not a corporate HQ destination.
The cranes busy at work above Union Station are not build-
ing office towers for startup companies; instead they are con-
structingmassive floor plates for large tenants with credit and
long-term leases. Even Big Four accounting firms have recog-
nized the draw of collaborative space, like KPMG’s first-ever
Ignition Center at 1001 17th St., employing 125 people in Denver.
Co-working is a preliminary disrupter to the commercial real
estate industry with limited measures of success. The keys
to profitability for co-working operators across the U.S. are
awareness, niche appeal and a booming population. Tenant
rep brokers predict that 30 percent of 3,000- to 5,000-square-
foot tenants will lease co-working office space in the future.
They also cite security and company culture as deterrents.
Commercial real estate experts have recently grown weary
of the legitimacy of demand for co-working office space, as
well as oversupply and cannibalization. However, as long as
there are limited creative spaces available to lease from tra-
ditional landlords near rail transit, there will be short-term
demand for up to 1 million square feet of co-working office
space in metro Denver.
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WeWork leased 69,823 square feet between three floors at the
Triangle Building at 1550Wewatta St. WeWork lists an expect-
ed opening date of Jan. 1, 2016, and estimates 931 desks.
WeWork leased 73,815 square feet at The Lab on Platte be-
tween Interstate 25 and the Denver Beer Co. WeWork lists an
expected open date of Jan. 1, 2016, and estimates 1,230 desks.
TRENDS
in Co-working
