The Workantile Exchange in downtown Ann Arbor is heading towards capacity, picking up speed and even expanding its space to accommodate demand.
"We'd like to continue expanding if we can," says Trek Glowacki, co-owner of Workantile Exchange. "If we can't we might cap membership and create a waiting list."
The 3,200 square-foot co-working space on Main Street, a few doors down from Vinology, has 89 members and adds an average of four new members each week. It expects to hit its capacity of 120 people by the end of the year. To help accommodate this growth it's adding about 400 square feet by taking over the Mighty Good Coffee Shop property, which is moving to 217 Main St. Workantile's community is still deciding how to use the space.
Potential uses include expanding the general work area or utilizing its street frontage to display the work of members, potentially a pretty eclectic mix. Workantile's membership is primarily knowledge-based workers but encompasses a broad variety of professions. Some examples include award-winning authors, teachers, attorneys, software developers, real-estate agents, and archeologists.
"It's sort of all over the map," Glowacki says. "People ask, 'What's your biggest demographic?' We don't know. It changes everyday."
Workantile Exchange got its start last summer as a local grass roots effort to provide a working area for the new economy's 1099 workers who are primarily home- and coffee shop-based. Glowacki and Mike Kessler turned the old Arcadian Antiques building into community workspace with two conference rooms, a kitchenette, a phone room, a loft area for training, and a cafe space. Monthly memberships run $160 including a monthly bus pass valued at $50.
Glowacki and Kessler are looking at expanding into the third floor of the late 19th-century building or perhaps even finding more adjacent space. Those plans are tentative for the time being as the partners focus on continuing to expand their business' membership.
Source: Trek Glowacki, co-owner of Workantile Exchange
Writer: Jon Zemke
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