WeWork, the infamous startup once valued at $47 billion, filed for bankruptcy in November. But after weathering hard times, local coworking spaces are growing again—and a major Detroit player is betting that there’s more to come. Bamboo Ann Arbor expects to open in April in the longtime Kiwanis building at First and Washington.
Bamboo cofounder Amanda Lewan says “about a third of all independent coworking spaces officially closed” during Covid. Its own sites in Detroit and Royal Oak were “very, very, very slow for a very long time.” But they’ve since recovered, and “coworking is predicted to grow tremendously [in] the next ten years,” Lewan says. “We’ve seen numbers of twelve [to] thirteen percent” a year.
Detroit coworking powerhouse Bamboo is opening an Ann Arbor branch in April in the former Kiwanis building on First St. “Coworking is predicted to grow tremendously [in] the next ten years,” cofounder Amanda Lewan says. “We’ve seen numbers of twelve [to] thirteen percent” a year. | Photo: Courtesy Bamboo
Bamboo’s other locations now have between 400 and 500 members, Lewan says, and she expects that Bamboo Ann Arbor will, too. After Kiwanis moved to Scio Twp. in 2017, the building was extensively remodeled by software startup Clinc, so it came with features like a rooftop lounge and sliding glass doors that open to the outside. Lewan says it needs only a “light buildout” to add more private offices and kitchen space before members move in next month.
Amenities are important in competitive markets like Ann Arbor, where at least seven places offer shared workspaces. Cahoots, in a pair of remodeled buildings on E. Huron, is currently the largest, with about 300 members. Predominantly techies, they share attractive group spaces and in addition to the standard amenities (conference rooms, soundproof “phone booths”) there’s a workout room, sauna, and café.
Things were “really rough”for a while, says Cahoots’ executive director Chelsea Hohn. Clinc had rented eighty desks, but left for the Kiwanis building just before the pandemic. (It’s since downsized and returned, but with just a few desks.) Then the building was closed for two months. But “our spaces are pretty vibrant and full and active now,” Hohn says. “We still take [Covid] precautions, but we’re in a really good position.”
Upstairs in a building on S. Main, Workantile offers a more bare-bones setting but a colorful work family. Veteran member Sarah Zettel, a fiction writer, says membership fluctuates between forty and fifty people. Predictably, people in tech are well represented, but others work in fields ranging from filmmaking to landscape architecture. Retirees sometimes sign up to write their memoirs.
Prices vary according to type of membership. Cahoots’ full-timers pay $425 a month, which reserves a sit/stand desk. Part-timers come in two or three days a week, pay $239, and choose whatever desk is available. (Use of the workout room and sauna is an additional $25 a month.) Lewan says Bamboo will charge $200 for a freelance desk, $400 for a dedicated desk, and $850 and up for its forty private offices. At Workantile, a freelance desk is $225 a month; $375 buys a dedicated desk, or a two-person family membership.
Like busy restaurants, these rent-a-desk operations need to manage their space. “We have seating for between twenty and twenty-five people,” says Workantile’s Zettel. When things gets tight, “We all start saying ‘Do we need to cut off new members?’”
Cahoots’ Hohn doesn’t see Bamboo, the new heavyweight in town, as a threat. “They’re really focusing on private offices, which is something we really don’t have,” she says. “Our hope is that all coworking spaces are full.”
Other local coworking champions are also upbeat. “I think coworking has become an accepted part of the landscape,” says Zettel. She used to work at home, but says moving to Workantile quickly paid for itself in increased productivity.
At home, Zettel says, she typically finished one book a year. Now, it’s “two or two-and-a-half books.”
