CHICAGO—Co-working spaces have started to spread throughout much of the CBD and several of the trendy office markets on the edges of downtown. But providers are also finding robust demand for alternates to working from standard offices in the suburbs. 25N Coworking has just decided to expand its core business by opening an 11,000-square-foot space on the ground floor of One Arlington, a former hotel next to Arlington Park Racetrack, now a luxury apartment community.

25N Coworking was founded in 2013, and began planning to open its first co-working office in west suburban Geneva. That location sold out of private office spaces within one month after opening its doors in February 2015. Now, only 18 months later, the company has decided to relocate the Geneva operation to accommodate continued demand for new spaces and accommodate growth among their current members.

“Suburban co-working needs to be where people live, not a long commute away,” Mara Hauser, founder and chief executive officer, tells GlobeSt.com. “People want to be near where their kids, schools, and home is. Yet, there is a need to get away from the home for productive work or meeting space. Co-working is a great amenity to the residents of the tower, and those in the neighborhood. Co-working will become the new standard to a bustling community urban or suburban – just like the gym, coffee shop, or wine bar.”

“The average co-working member globally makes at least six useful connections within the first two months of co-working, and their companies do better within the first three months,” she adds. “25N Geneva members have far exceeded these averages, and the impact to the surrounding local business community has been exceptional.”

25N Coworking provides work and meeting spaces with flexible plans that allow members to pick daily, weekly, or monthly packages in open flexible, dedicated, or private spaces for any individual or team size, Hauser adds. Community managers staff the 24/7 spaces and help foster a sense of community among the members, in addition to greeting guests and providing catering and concierge services.

There are now dozens of incubators, accelerators, shared and co-working spaces in the Chicago region. And providers have plans in the works for many more. As reported in GlobeSt.com, New York-based Serendipity Labs recently forged an exclusive franchise agreement with James Fangmeyer, co-founder and principal at Triumph Development LLC, and Matt Gresge, a former Fortune 250 senior executive and current Chicago-based entrepreneur, to develop ten suburban sites over the next five years or so.

“Co-working is booming,” according to an August forecast from Emergent Research, a Lafayette, CA-based research and consulting firm. It found that the number of co-working spaces worldwide will grow from just over 11,000 this year to over 26,000 by 2020. And it predicts that the number of co-working members will increase from about 976,000 in 2016 to more than 3.8 million in 2020, with 2.2 million in the US.

Hauser spent years designing and creating collaborative workplaces for Fortune 50 organizations before starting 25N Coworking.

“The second location for 25N Coworking will definitely carry our brand, image and professional environment, but will be different,” she says. “The goals for each space are to pick up the vibe of each local community, and for our location at One Arlington in the Arlington Downs project, 25N Coworking is going to be the rock-n-roll version with concrete, steel, glass, and 18-foot high ceilings.”

Hauser spent years designing and creating collaborative workplaces for Fortune 50 organizations before starting 25N Coworking.

Instant Insights /

Co-Working Starts to Boom in Northwest Suburbs

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