Another day, another co-working space.
Today, San Diego-based CommonGrounds Workplace officially opens a new co-working space in downtown Minneapolis.
Located on the second floor of the former TCF Bank Building at 801 Marquette Avenue, the site features nearly 28,000 square feet of shared workspace.
CommonGrounds, which is opening co-working spaces in major metros across the country, aims to attract “Fortune 1500” companies to the Minneapolis location, says CEO Jacob Bates.
“Those type of corporate occupiers are still in the early stages of use and are looking at coworking and flexible office as a strategic component of their real estate strategy,” he says. “Not only are those companies looking, but they are also a magnet for ancillary companies that want to be near those organizations.”
The Minneapolis site has space for more than 400 CommonGrounds members. The location includes desks, team rooms, and private offices. The layout is flexible, too: CommonGrounds uses demountable walls that can be rearranged based on tenant needs. (Milan, Italy-based Tecno provided the products.)
CommonGrounds has signed a 130-month lease for the location, which is connected to the Minneapolis skyway. One of the company’s new neighbors is Meet Minneapolis, which moved from Marquette Plaza in fall.
CBRE Minneapolis handles leasing for the building.
CommonGrounds joins a growing list of companies opening co-working spaces in the Twin Cities. In late June, Office Depot launched a “Workonomy Hub” co-working space at its Chanhassen store. That same month, Seattle-based co-working company The Riveter opened its Edina location.
To be sure, the co-working space isn’t quite as crowded as it may seem. Bates says that co-working spaces comprise just 1 percent of the overall office market in Minneapolis.
“Predictions from the likes of JLL, CBRE, and other top brokerage firms and analysts [show] that we could see anywhere from 8 percent to 30 percent co-working shared office in a given market in the next 5 to 7 years, depending on who you ask,” Bates says.
CommonGrounds first announced plans for its Minneapolis location in January. That coincided with the completion of the company’s Series A funding round.
With those funds in hand, the company has signed leases for new sites in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Over the next two years, CommonGrounds aims to operate about 50 locations across the country.