Thursday, January 17, 2013
BlankSpaces Renews Faith In Coworking
The last few years in Los Angeles has been a heady one for the technology startup community, with hundreds of new startups, and a tangible enthusiasm in the air along Silicon Beach. Along with that growth, there have been a host of coworking and similar service provider cropping up to serve the community, offering up office space and more to local startups and other businesses. One of the oldest coworking spaces in Los Angeles, BLANKSPACES, appears to have faith (and apparently, some success) in the whole coworking model, and told its supporters today that it has just renewed its lease for another five years in its original location, which is in the Mid-Wilshire area.
In an email announcing the renewal, Jerome Chang, the coworking space's founder, said that he believes that--having already been in the location for five years--that makes the coworking space the oldest, and therefore first coworking spot in SoCal. The coworking space now has plenty of competition (ROC in Santa Monica, Nextspace @ Amplify, NextSpace Culver City, IO/LA, Coloft), but it appears there are enough entrepreneurs and others with an interest in coworking and temporary space that multiple providers are needed to support the community.
Coworking spaces are a relatively new concept, allowing individuals, startups, small companies, and others to tap into communal office space and resources like Internet connections and conference rooms, on a flexible basis--ideal for technology startups in their early stage. They've also become a de-facto gathering place for the local community, hosting events, meetings, and more.