Assemble Shared Office Growing Nationwide

MINNEAPOLIS—As reported in GlobeSt.com, Assemble Shared Office has opened several spaces in Chicago for startups and small businesses, and now seems ready to spread its services across the US. In September, the firm will open a Minneapolis location in the historic 15 Building at 15 S. Fifth St. on the north end of downtown, with Miami, Raleigh and even more locations in Chicago up next.

“As we took a broad look across the country, Minneapolis popped right up and hit all of our criteria,” Phil Domenico, co-founder of Assemble, tells GlobeSt.com. The north edge of downtown, especially, had just the right mixture of tech firms, incubators, retailers, strong demographics and a live/work/play atmosphere that attracts a critical mass of start-up firms. As an added bonus, 15 Building is adjacent to the city's Warehouse District. Once a gritty industrial area, the neighborhood is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and hosts coffee shops, restaurants, bars, art galleries and thousands of new residents.

Occasionally, cities that meet Assemble's criteria on paper don't pass a personal inspection. Charlotte, NC, seemed like it could be a good fit, but the banking and financial center turned out to be a little too strait-laced. “We went and toured neighborhoods and buildings and ended up asking, 'where are all the tech companies?'” Domenico says. Nearby Raleigh, on the other hand, is a hub for technology firms, many of which draw employees and energy from the local universities. “The same holds true for Minneapolis.”

The Twin Cities also has a high concentration of large tech firms, he adds, which foster start-ups in several ways. Many of these companies create demand by using smaller entities as contractors, for example, and many start-ups are launched by former employees of the big players.

“We're a stopping point on the evolutionary timeline of a start-up,” Domenico says. “If you start at home and then employ four or five people,” a temporary space at Assemble will make sense. For a monthly membership, Assemble tenants have access to critical business amenities such as printing, WiFi, coffee, conference rooms, networking events, happy hours for employees, and shared business resources such as access to investment capital, accounting, credit card processing, and other services, all without the worries of a permanent lease. However, “once you expand beyond ten people you'll probably need your own office.”

The new space in Minneapolis will have about 20,000 square feet. Choosing a historic building has become Assemble's preference. “We seek out class B and C buildings,” Domenico says, because the environment tends to be less corporate “and that's where these folks want to work.” Furthermore, “landlords love us,” partly because these buildings don't have the amenities of class A counterparts, and due to the energy and activity associated with shared office spaces “we become the amenity.”

R2, a Chicago-based firm formerly known as South Street Capital, recently acquired 15 Building and also owns 1165 N. Clark St. in Chicago, the Gold Coast site of Assemble's first location. After seeing what a shared office did for the latter building, which they have spent millions renovating, R2 officials asked Assemble to occupy a portion of their Minneapolis acquisition, Domenico says, “and bring buzz to the building.”