This report reviews the current state of the co-working industry and its potential for growth according to current supply-demand relationships as it relates to larger economic movements and to the regional market for Cleveland, Ohio, and the surrounding area. The report analyzes factors that influence co-working growth and uptake and projects the likely state of the industry in coming years. The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the nature and scope of co-working supply and demand and develops a typology that can identify benefits and approaches for distinct types of co-workers and co-working stakeholders.

Co-working facilities provide various types of workers with shared offices and workspaces through flexible-term leases to facilitate work and networking for tenants. Many of these spaces develop a culture that enables innovation and collaboration through an ethic of sharing and support. Co-working is a labor and logistics management phenomenon that, while first broadly established with the founding of Regus in 1989, has seen major uptake and evolution of services in recent years. In our current work culture, office-based workforces have come to expect more dynamic, accommodating, and productive spaces for their labor, as well as more autonomy and support while traveling or establishing a presence in new markets. Co-working facilities have provided employees and employers alike—along with freelancers, contractors, and other itinerant labor—exciting opportunities to redefine what “office work” is and how it functions as part of pre-existing organizational structures.

In composing this report on the co-working industry, the research team analyzed and evaluated the economics of co-working and applied this analysis to an economic impact forecast of two expansion scenarios for co-working space on Cleveland’s Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). To accomplish this, after a brief overview of co-working and its history, the study is separated into three primary parts:

• an examination of the co-working market including an investigation of co-working tenants (as the demand), co-working spaces (as the supply), and the interaction of the supply and demand of co-working,
• a market assessment of the regional co-working landscape in the Cleveland MSA, and
• an economic impact analysis of extant Cleveland co-working providers as well as the potential construction of future co-working square footage in the region.

A full methodology and relevant data on costs, rates of return, and specific impact factors can be found in the report’s appendices.

Download the complete press release here.