by Michelle Z. Askeland
Co-working is an unavoidable
buzzword in Denver. In the few
short years dedicated co-working
space has had a presence in the
city, the definition has evolved from
a communal environment to one
that often embraces private offices
as well as community areas. The
long-term effects of what this new
office environment means to the
office property market has yet to be
seen. But its ever-growing presence,
which capitalizes on flexibility and a
plethora of officing options, should
not be ignored.
“Traditional co-working is mostly
hot desking and open desks,”
said Craig Baute, Creative Density
founder. “When it started, it focused
on people who could work from
home but didn’t want to. They really
wanted to be around friends. You
were first solving the need of people
versus the need of space.”
After helping open a co-working
space in Toronto in 2010, Baute
moved to Denver to open a similar
space in June 2011. In addition to
not wanting to be the first co-work-
ing space in a city – Creative Density
was the second – he wanted a city
that offered the right amount of risk
and reward when considering cost
as well as culture.
“I chose Denver because it was
affordable, it was in growth mode,
and the culture was accepting of
remote working, freelancing and
start-ups,” he said.
At the time, Baute’s concept of
co-working space was pretty dif-
ferent than executive suites, which
was one of the only flexible office
environments available. While co-
working focused on people first,
executive suites focus primarily on
meeting office space needs for its
members.
For example, executive suite pro-
vider Regus, which was founded
25 years ago and has 20 locations
in Colorado, offers a plug-and-play
office environment. A tenant can
rent an office for himself or for a
team, and Regus supplies the infra-
structure and services, including
phone, Internet, administrative and
reception staff, furniture and meet-
ing rooms.
“Our tenants typically are people
that want the flexibility that we
offer and don’t want to invest the
initial capital outlay that it would
take to open up their own tradition-
Photo courtesy Thrive Workplace
The definition of co-working is evolving to embrace private offices and private desks, as well as community areas and open desks.
October 2015
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