A new shared workspace is set to open in downtown Berkeley later this year at 2081 Center St.
NextSpace, which already has offices in San Francisco, Santa Cruz and San Jose, among other locations, describes itself as the state’s “coolest new coworking community!”
The 9,000-square-foot space in Berkeley will be able to host more than 200 members. The company offers a variety of membership types, which include 24/7 access and conference room space, and “accommodate a variety of workstyles, from open and collaborative to heads-down and deadline driven,” according to the company website.
The space, a former bank, is expected to house 11 individual offices, 18 workstations, and a holistic room for massage, acupuncture and services from other one-on-one therapists, in addition to its large, open café space.
The company website offers a description of the new Berkeley office space: “It is housed in the historic Wells Fargo building in downtown Berkeley, and sits right across the street from BART. With classic architecture, hip new designs, ballroom ceilings and an old bank vault as a conference room, this space is going to be the coolest professional community to get work done in the downtown.”
NextSpace joins at least seven other companies that offer shared work space in Berkeley. These include The Hub, Sandbox Suites, UC Berkeley’s Skydeck Accelerator, Berkeley Coworking, Mothership Hackermoms, Sharespace@Ashby and Local Office. (Scroll down to see a map of all the locations.)
NextSpace spokeswoman Andrea Heuer said renovations are well underway on Center Street, with plans to open the new office space in June.
Heuer said NextSpace founders Jeremy Neuner, Ryan Coonerty, and Caleb Baskin started NextSpace in June 2008 “to turn a mostly non-profit and casual concept into a forward-looking and viable business. They realized that, while attracting a business with 200 people will help a community, attracting 200 individual creatives and providing them with a place to succeed will have a much bigger economic benefit.”
She said the company’s plans are in line with an effort by the Downtown Berkeley Association and city staff to create a “Start-up Cluster” “to fight off the attrition caused when the Cal students move on after finishing their education. They want to bring new business to Berkeley, which will hopefully bring more families and residential support, the kind of community building that is at NextSpace’s core.”
Heuer said many other co-working spaces “tend to be more like incubators or accelerators versus the traditional co-working workspaces for professionals to set up shop.” They’re often more geared toward “techies,” she said, such as developers, coders, hackers and the like. But NextSpace tends to attract a broad group of members, she said, including entrepreneurs, writers and designers, and other people in the arts.
“Part of the appeal of Berkeley is that it’s a very diverse environment,” she said.
Some of the NextSpace memberships include dedicated workstations or offices, while many others, an estimated 90-100 in Berkeley, offer guaranteed “café space.” Berkeley’s prices aren’t set yet, and may be different from other markets, but memberships in San Francisco, for example, range from $20 day passes to monthly “café memberships” for around $300, monthly “workstation memberships” for $500-600, and “office memberships” starting at about $1,000.
Find NextSpace Berkeley on Twitter and Facebook. For more information, email nextspacesf@nextspace.us. Click the markers in the map below to learn more about co-working options in Berkeley.
View Co-working spaces in Berkeley in a larger map
Related:
Startups value Skydeck for views, closeness to Cal [06.25.12]
Skydeck hopes to boost Berkeley-based tech startups [03.01.12]
Berkeley for startups: perfect spot or braindrain in action? [02.09.12]
Skydeck innovation center receives $50,000 boost [07.15.11]
Berkeleyside publishes many articles every day. To see all our stories in chronological order, and read ones you may have missed, check out our All the News grid.
