Co-working space gives businesses options during COVID-19

c/o New Orleans CityBusiness By: Andrew Valenti, Reporter September 1, 2020

A new co-working space in the Lower Garden District aims to give smaller firms and their employees options in the ever-changing world of COVID-19.

Urban HUB, located at 1582 Magazine St., offers 2,000 square feet of space in an open working environment with up to 19 desks. The space also features two conference rooms, two quiet “phone booths,” a copy and printer room with storage for office supplies and a kitchen and break area.

There’s also a small courtyard with a picnic table that gives individuals the ability to work outdoors or host a small event or pop-up. Memberships at Urban HUB start at $30 per day or $250 a month for an undedicated desk and $400 per month for a reserved desk with a locking file cabinet.

Urban HUB is limiting occupancy to 50% to allow for increased work separation and social distancing, hand sanitizing stations and a professional sanitation team that cleans weekly. Its parent company, Urban Properties Real Estate, acquired the property earlier this year.

Genevieve Douglass, director of operations for Urban HUB, said the space is not a stereotypical office environment with fluorescent lighting and carpet floors common in many high-rise buildings. The property is situated on a corner lot and has polished concrete floors, with the kitchen area feeling like “you’re at someone’s house,” she said.

All conference rooms and the kitchen area are equipped with a Roku digital media player that allows people to stream content from their devices.

Douglass said plans were already in motion to undertake this venture before the viral outbreak, with the goal of developing a smaller, user-friendly workspace. She said the firm wants to open additional locations in other parts of New Orleans such as the Warehouse District, Treme and Mid-City.

The space is a quick drive to the Central Business District and near shopping and dining along the Magazine Street corridor. It also allows for fewer touch points and caters to firms that don’t want to deal with office towers and congested spaces.

“We wanted to offer something more flexible and give people options,” Douglass said. “This gives people a change of scenery from working at home.”

Douglass said smaller branches of companies that need space would be attractive fits at Urban HUB. National mechanical, electrical and plumbing company Salas O’Brien is renting four desks at the site and arrived during the pandemic.

“There are also companies that don’t want all that overhead that comes with your standard office building,” she said.

New Orleans’ co-working scene lost one of its major players this year when Launch Pad, the city’s first co-working space, announced in July it was shuttering its 22,000 square-foot space at 400 Poydras Tower. Founded in 2009, Launch Pad moved from the three floors of Magazine Street’s IP building in 2017.

As of this time last year, the company had helped create over 5,000 jobs, raised $160 million in capital and their graduates had leased 600,000 square feet of new office space. One of its biggest success stories is local tech company Lucid, which started off as one co-working desk in 2010 and has since grown to more than 100 employees and now occupies the 31st and 32nd floors of Canal Place in downtown New Orleans.

The local office market is expected to see changes as well, with more businesses needing less space and some working remotely.

Work is underway on “The Stables,” a development in the Lower Garden District that is testing the appetite for smaller, low-rise offices.

The former storage space for French Quarter horse carriages is being converted into retail and office space at 1222 Annunciation St. Urban Properties Real Estate is the listing brokerage for the development, with space leasing for $28 per square foot.