Trending
Industrious adds apartment sites to coworking footprint
Company partners with AvalonBay to open ground-floor facilities for tenants
Industrious wants to come to your apartment.
The coworking company has agreed to open up a facility in AvalonBay Communities’ apartment buildings across L.A. and Orange County, according to an announcement Monday.
To start, Industrious will open private offices for residents at two AvalonBay complexes — one at 821 South Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia and another at 185 South State College Boulevard in Brea. The firms plan to add more locations next year.
The offices will be located on the ground floor — a space in multifamily complexes often occupied by retail, the firm said.
Tenants will also have access to other Industrious locations. Across L.A., the firm currently has nine locations, including in Hollywood, Century City, Glendale, Pasadena and Downtown L.A.
Having office-like amenities in a residential building isn’t new, but it’s the first time a major coworking firm has teamed up to retrofit and brand such a space in a residential property in L.A.
The strategy allows Industrious to broaden its product and tackle the issue of remote work. Almost two and a half years after the pandemic started, remote work is still prevalent, with 35 percent of U.S. workers able to work from home full-time, according to a June survey from McKinsey & Company.
Adding coworking spaces to residential properties “fills the gap” by “meeting employees where they want to be,” said Industrious co-founder and CEO Jamie Hodari.
Flexible office firms have drastically reduced their footprint since the start of the pandemic — 144 different providers gave up a total of 12.2 million square feet from mid-2020 through the start of this year, according to brokerage CBRE.
Still, firms are betting on the return of coworking spaces, given the flexible lease and use options. In May, Industrious scored another $100 million investment from CBRE, after the brokerage bought a 35 percent stake in the company last year.
CBRE itself has reported that about 60 percent of occupiers expected flex space to become a “significant part” of their portfolio over the next two years.