MIAMI—Ten years ago, co-working spaces were a new concept, providing shared desks for freelancers and entrepreneurs as single “mom and pop” shops.
Today, the one-off, mom and pop spaces have been mostly replaced with chain companies, providing real estate developers a new way to lease traditional office space and to make connections with potential tenants.
Feeding off the tech startup boom and the increased mobility it allowed workers, co-working spaces took off — attracting lonely home-office dwellers out of their pajamas and sparing coffee shop-based freelancers an obligatory purchase of a cup of coffee in exchange for an all-day workstation.
“They’re people that want more stimulation than sitting at home and being very productive working in your pajamas all day,” said University of Michigan business professor Gretchen Spreitzer, who has studied for years how people thrive at work, focusing on co-working spaces in recent years.
