Is Co-Working Your Next Frenemy?

NEW YORK CITY—“Third-party-provided flex space is not a phenomenon constrained to startups,” says Nicole LaRusso, director of research and analysis at CBRE. “In our survey 75% of the corporate tenants interviewed said they expect to do some amount of co-working or flex space in the next three years.”

Documenting a 600% increase of co-working since 2009, the CBRE study recorded occupancy of 9.2 million square feet of Manhattan office space by third-party flex space operators. Although the flex space leasing amounts to 2.5% of the total Manhattan office occupancy, LaRusso says the small percentage reflects the vast amount of the borough’s total office space. In 2016 there were 450 million square feet of office space in Manhattan’s main business districts: Midtown, Midtown South and Downtown, according to New York State Comptroller data published in 2017.