Co-working spaces: adapting, not disappearing
Though co-working spaces were somewhat empty at the beginnign of the pandemic, and some people still work from home, many small businesses think of co-working as a cheaper alternative to having your own office.
‘At sTARTUp HUB, we used to have a co-working space, but changed our focus around 2 years ago. We now rent out small rooms where people can rent a desk for a minimum of 1 month. At the very end of the second wave, we saw an increase in the demand for these individual desks,’ Riin Lisett Rei, Marketing and PR of Contriber, which operates sTARTUp HUB, said.
Photo: Publicity photos of Teikums
sTARTUp HUB is not planning to go back to a co-working space since there are enough opportunities for people in Tartu and the demand is not that high. ‘It was a cool community to have in the building, but money-wise our building was not that profitable,’ R. L. Rei added.
Mari Leen Rosenberg, CEO of Spring Hub, a co-working space in Tallinn, also commented on there being more interest in renting individual offices. This trend has been growing for a long time and she is not sure if it is only related to COVID-19. Also, people use more meeting rooms and phone boxes for video calls. ‘The pandemic has definitely affected us during lockdowns, with a lot of our clients working from home,’ M. L. Rosenberg said. Spring Hub is not back to its pre-pandemic level yet.