The rise of coworking
The hiring of coworking areas is on the rise. Their users are not only freelancers or tech entrepreneurs anymore; small and medium-sized enterprises have also fallen for this employment model, looking for shared environments brimming with creativity and great networking opportunities.
The rise of coworking, far from competing with the office market, arose from the need of a market asking for a different kind of workspaces and services. In fact, by 2020 is expected that coworking business in Spain will generate 147 EUR millions only through the renting of these collaborative spaces. Currently, coworking represents about the 2% of the office stock in Spain, although it might turn into the 15% in the coming years.
Inmobiliaria Colonial, aware of this trend, has diversified its business model and also incorporates coworking spaces in the buildings in its real estate assets portfolio.
The Window Building, located in Príncipe de Vergara, 112 will host a 3.800 sq m coworking space distributed across three floors. This building will be the first new office building in Madrid’s CBD area where traditional offices coexist with collaborative workspaces. The Window Building ─which completion is expected by next autumn─ is intended to become an iconic structure thanks to its garden terraces on different floors and the use of avant-garde materials.
In addition, Utopicus ─member of Colonial’s family since 2017─ plans to open a new coworking space in downtown Madrid. Located in Gran Vía, 4, this collaborative working space will become the flagship of the company in Spain. This new location joins Orense St and Príncipe de Vergara St premises in Madrid and Plaça Catalunya, Clementina, Gala Placidia and Ciutat de Granada premises in Barcelona.
In the same way, several coworking companies have created collaborative working spaces in other Colonial buildings. For instance, there is a seven floor coworking space in Castellana 43 building, in Madrid. Similarly, Alfonso XII building hosts Spaces Atocha, that measures over 3,000 sq m and has 150 individual working spaces and 5 meeting rooms.
