A white Colonial Revival church with a high steeple adds an idyllic architectural touch to the affluent town of Huntington, a Fresh York suburb on Long Island. But eyes turn away from the road: “Coworking space,” it says. “It’s a bit like WeWork. It was a church, but not anymore.”
The former church could have been razed and replaced with apartment buildings if Michael Hartofilis hadn’t bought it and turned it into a coworking space called Main space which opened earlier this year. What was once a high-ceilinged sanctuary has been divided into two floors of coworking space, with booths, glass phone booths and minimalist art. Industrial-style beams and up-to-date, geometric lightweight fixtures are juxtaposed with preserved, intricate crown moldings and artisanal details surrounding the building’s windows and doors.
I spent the morning working in a halved sanctuary, where church pews replaced cubicles with ergonomic office chairs. The neon lights and dazzling colors make it straightforward to forget that Main Space was once a church and has all the amenities of a typical coworking space – a gym, an ice bath, a kitchen, various meeting rooms with comfortable chairs and patterned wallpaper, and an outdoor patio space decorated with a string of lights. But it is also embedded in community. On Thursday afternoon, people sat at desks throughout the building and in conference rooms, talking to each other between business calls.
“Ideally, local residents sign up for a coworking space,” says Hartofilis, who also heads an energy company and works on a neighborhood social media app. He hopes those who come will feel part of something special and get to know each other. But people had already arrived from neighboring towns or used the site as a meeting place for Fresh York and towns on Long Island. “There’s not much on offer when it comes to coworking spaces, there’s nothing like it.”
Courtesy of Main Space
After Covid changed work patterns and styles, coworking continues. The industry is growing and it is this is expected to continue— despite negative headlines about the company that brought coworking to the masses: WeWork. The coworking giant filed for bankruptcy in November, raising concerns about the model after it rapidly sublet offices and tried to sublet desks at a higher price. Rising interest rates and massive changes in the office space market after the outbreak of Covid-19 hit the coworking giant, which was then valued at $47 billion. But WeWork is currently preparing to emerge from bankruptcy at the end of May, raising $450 million in novel investments and getting rid of excess office space after renegotiating leases. Industry experts say that coworking has great potential for development.
“Coworking is a great product,” says Jonathan Wasserstrum, a partner at Unwriter Capital, who invested in Switchboard, a coworking company in the southeastern United States that drops the coworking name in favor of “job clubs.” The company has offices in Atlanta; Nashville, Tennessee; and Charlotte, North Carolina. Its victims include a former school, a garage for motorcycles, a warehouse where elevators were tested, and a church. Coworking “is in high demand and will continue to be big,” Wasserstrum says.
Many passes at Switchyards locations are sold out. The company plans to have 25 clubs by the end of the year, with a total of 200 in the next five years. The design and music selection draw inspiration from libraries, cafes and hotel lobbies, not offices.