A Chicago-based coworking company is giving Downtown a shot in the arm.
Workbox, a national workspace operator, will open its first location in Pittsburgh — and in Pennsylvania — at One PPG Place in January.
The company will be taking more than 23,000 square feet on the 31st floor of One PPG, part of the six-building PPG Place complex adjacent to Market Square. It’s a fitting choice for Workbox — the floor once housed Industrious, a New York-based coworking company that closed down the space in late 2022 after five years at the location.
After getting its start in 2019, Workbox has grown to 11 locations in six cities across the country.
“Pittsburgh has built a dynamic professional services industry over the last few decades, and we believe the recipe for this success has been its highly collaborative business community. This is what makes Pittsburgh so special and is the reason we are so excited about adding a Downtown Pittsburgh location,” John Wallace, Workbox CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.
The Workbox space will provide offices for teams ranging from one to 16 people, lounges, conference rooms and an open kitchen.
In addition to the space, members also will have a “direct connection to over 100 capital and operating partners, programming and networking events as well as connection to its wider member community and affiliates such as Workbox Ventures.”
Tripp Merchant, senior vice president, Americas, for the Jones Lang LaSalle real estate firm, which helped to secure the space, said the transaction is a “win for the building, the district, and the business community as a whole.”
“This transaction highlights the growing demand for flexible workspaces in prime locations, and we’re excited to see Workbox bring their dynamic coworking model to this premier, high-rise floor. We view their presence as an added amenity in the complex, and it will undoubtedly contribute to the vibrancy of One PPG Place and the continued revitalization of the CBD,” he said in a statement.
Downtown currently has about 130,000 square feet of coworking space, according to JLL. The Workbox space will become its third largest, behind Industrious, which still has a 38,000-square-foot space in Liberty Center, and Spaces, which occupies 37,814 square feet in One Oxford Centre.
Beyond Industrious at PPG Place, two other coworking companies have shut down in the Golden Triangle over the past decade, JLL reported. In all, Downtown, the Strip District and the South Side have lost nearly 84,000 square feet of coworking space since 2013. Furthermore, WeWork, the New York City-based coworking giant, pulled out of a deal in 2019 to take as much as 105,000 square feet in U.S. Steel Tower.
Like many other office-related ventures, coworking was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by HOK, a global architecture, design, engineering and planning firm best known for its work on sports stadiums.
However, the report also found that it is now experiencing a resurgence, “as companies embrace hybrid models, tapping into the flexibility and community coworking provides. Coworking 2.0 has arrived,” it stated.
“Coworking is evolving in response to shifting workforce preferences, corporate needs for flexibility and changing perspectives on traditional offices,” the report stated. “New models are emerging, each meeting the unique demands of the post-pandemic business world. From on-demand virtual platforms to experiential team gatherings, these innovations are more than fads. They are pivotal responses to the priorities of today’s hybrid workforce, offering new avenues for connection and productivity.”.
Likewise, Dan Adamski, a JLL executive managing director in Pittsburgh, said that “the coworking industry, unlike many other sectors, has demonstrated resilience in the face of 2024’s economic challenges and uncertainty.”
“This momentum is fueled by the rising demand for flexible workspaces and the shifting work patterns of the post-COVID world. With more companies emphasizing remote and hybrid models than ever before, coworking spaces have become more popular and accessible, spanning central business districts and suburbs alike,” he said.
He noted that such spaces are particularly popular with millennials, with the average age of a coworking member being 36.
Gerard McLaughlin, an executive managing director for the Newmark real estate firm in Pittsburgh, said there continues to be a demand for such places, pointing to Nova Place on the North Side as one example. It has with more than 50,000 square feet of coworking space.
“I think there’s a need for it. There are people who need to have a space to work out of that’s not necessarily their home,” he said.
Coworking also can be good for small startups and others looking for the flexibility and the amenities offered by such ventures while not wanting to commit to a long-term lease for traditional office square footage, he said.
Downtown has struggled with high office vacancies since the COVID-19 pandemic and the move to at-home and hybrid work. It has had some recent gains, though, including the decision by the Houston Harbaugh law firm to stay at the Gateway Center complex in a 23,204-square-foot space.
According to JLL, businesses are now prioritizing collaboration space to encourage engagement and culture building, a trend that reinforced Workbox’s decision to move into the Pittsburgh market.
Besides Chicago, Workbox has locations in Columbus, Dallas, Minneapolis, and Salt Lake City.
First Published: December 9, 2024, 1:51 p.m.
Updated: December 10, 2024, 6:39 p.m.
