Another co-working company is coming, this time to a sleepy slice of Wynwood
Yet another new co-working company is expanding to Miami, the city with the largest concentration of flexible space in the country. Its new home? A dicey slice of Wynwood.
Spring Place, a co-working company with locations in Beverly Hills and Manhattan’s SoHo, is moving into the vacant 34,214-square-foot two-story building at 2143 NW First Ave., according to an application filed to the Wynwood Design Review Committee. The building sits across the street from the MIami events venue Soho Studios.
Morabito Properties CEO Valerio Morabito will invest about $6 million to adapt the space for its sole tenant, he said. Plans include a restaurant on the first floor, office space on the first and second floors, a new rooftop terrace and 14 parking spaces, including street parking. Construction is anticipated to start in September and end in 12 months.
“We are talking with the tenant to see the steps that we can take to make the space safe and will allow people to work with absolute peace of mind. We are connecting with a consultant that will help us implement that in the best possible way,” Morabito said. “We are optimistic about the future.”
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Spring Place isn’t the only new co-working space coming to South Florida. The Nexus brand and Location Ventures also are opening flexible work space in Coral Gables,
“COVID can be an opportunity for co-working spaces. Corporations will probably look for a more flexible way of bringing people together,” Morabito said.
Office brokers expect demand to grow for co-working spaces. Shay Pope, CBRE senior vice president, said in July, “The flexibility of not having to commit to long-term leases is exactly what companies are going to be looking for. They’ll want month-to-month, 6-month or one-year leases. Companies will want to wait, especially now, to see how their business may look like after the pandemic.”
Morabito hired the Portuguese street artist Vhils, known for drilling portraits on exterior walls across the world, to embellish the façade.
Memberships at the co-working company vary from $487 per month up to $3,000 per year for its SoHo location and $750 per month up to $3,500 per year at its Beverly Hills location.
Wynwood is already home to several co-working spaces, including WeWork, where memberships range from $450 to $880 per month; Spaces at Wynwood Cube (from $226 to $537 per month) and The Lab ( from $150 to $1,600 per month).
Morabito bought the building for $9.3 million in 2019. Unlike the jazzy Northwest Second Avenue section of Wynwood, the Soho Studios area lacks foot traffic or retail enterprises. Still, he believes the area will change as other tenants move in and with the help of the Wynwood master plan.
“Given that, I feel it has the highest potential. It’s extremely close to the main artery in Wynwood where everything is happening,” Morabito said.
The building was built in 1949 and, like most others in Wynwood, was first used as a warehouse space and, later, became the home of an on-site goods and food vendor.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
