‘Boutique’ Co-Working Spaces Find a Niche Nurturing Small Businesses

In a refurbished Salvation Army building in downtown Lincoln, Neb., Bob Hinrichs runs a co-working space for about 150 people.

The workers are not allowed to bring in their dogs, and they don’t curl up in beanbag chairs. But they are encouraged to collaborate with one another and with the city’s wider business community.

Mr. Hinrichs works to nurture connections among the small businesses — software developers, public-relations consultants and sustainable-agriculture advocates — that work in his space, and he says such cooperation is helping the local economy.