Coworking has been one of the fastest-growing entrepreneurial trends of the last decade. In 2005, there were just a handful of coworking spaces in America. Now, there are over 2,000. New York City alone has more than 50.
Coworking’s quick spike in popularity means a new coworking space will have less innovative impact than it might have 10 years ago. And it means coworking spaces have saturated the startup culture so completely that they’ve caught the attention of larger companies.
Lower Manhattan HQ (LMHQ) is looking past coworking and into collaborative spaces. The project was initiated by the Alliance for Downtown New York and supported by several sponsors, partners, and founding members. Through research and ongoing contact with large and small companies, the group designed LMHQ to be a place where businesses can connect to a community for a richer working experience.
Open desk space at LMHQ. Photo courtesy of LMHQ © Gensler
The Downtown Alliance had supported the coworking space Hive 55 (Which LMHQ’s Director Daria Siegel also ran), but saw that coworking was growing so quickly that other projects could have more impact. The market is changing, and spaces need to change with it. LMHQ came out of conversations with companies responding to these changes. Control Group, Google, Stack Exchange, NY Tech Meetup, HD Made, Wilmer Hale, and a whole committee of tech, advertising, media, and information companies weighed in.
The findings? Large tech companies are cloistering themselves on corporate campuses, missing out on serendipitous idea sharing and opportunities to show off their work. Young companies are looking for places to network, find talent, and make deals. Everyone needs event space.
As Jessica Lappin, President of the Downtown Alliance, describes it, “It’s logical to think about how an entrepreneur would not want to take a meeting at Starbucks…From my perspective, it’s interesting to see how big companies like Control Group need space. Everyone’s so packed into their offices, they need some space to breathe.”
LMHQ offers event spaces, conference rooms, open desks, café space, living rooms, and a classroom. The walls are covered in IdeaPaint, making the whole space into a sketch-friendly whiteboard. (IdeaPaint is a sponsor.) Rooms are named after Lower Manhattan innovators: Tesla, Morgan, Gehry. NY Tech Meetup and NY Technology Council will help program events.
Control Group Partner Scott Anderson is a founding member at LMHQ and thinks an events-based space like this is valuable, and companies are interested, because both big and small companies need room to socialize. They can participate in events that show off thought leadership and get media attention, find and vet new hires in New York’s competitive tech scene, and hold in-person business meetings that build trust and rapport. “On the internet, scale is huge, but to get innovation accomplished, you need face-to-face meetings sometimes.”
He also sees the space as an opportunity to advance human-centered design. “We should be using human input for the right things and let computers do the rest. This space could advance human design. Companies want that now.”
John Paul Farmer is the Director of Technology and Civic Innovation for Microsoft. That position didn’t exist two years ago. Recently, tech giants like Microsoft have seen the importance of putting roots down in local entrepreneurial communities. It gives them more opportunities to discover new people and ideas, as well as connect what they are doing to more relevant players. “There’s policy gridlock right now, and it’s why places like New York are doing so well. There’s leadership that bridges the private and public sector. Being on a corporate campus is detrimental. So that’s why I’m here.”
Lower Manhattan is a unique place to foster a collaboration space. The Downtown Alliance conspicuously avoids using the term “The Financial District” – likely because the neighborhood is changing so much and so quickly. The business center that was once dominated by FIRE industries –finance, insurance, and real estate—but is now transitioning to a focus on what LMHQ Director Daria Siegel calls “TAMI” companies (tech, advertising, media, information). Siegel rightly observes “Lower Manhattan is redefining itself right now." The Downtown Alliance has poured over $1 billion into the transportation system and business infrastructure, and proximity to Brooklyn is making it easy to attract the young talent of that borough.
LMHQ is priced on a membership model and allows for one-day drop-ins for as little as $30. Over 2,000 people have RSVPed to LMHQ’s #OFFSITE opening conference this week.
