As the numbers of laptop-toting city freelancers has boomed in recent years, so has the number of communal workspaces offering them an alternative to coffee shops and cramped studio apartments. They come in all stripes — from scruffy spaces where workers gather around communal tables to corporate-style concerns with luxurious workstations and receptionists.
That means there’s a desk-away-from-home to suit every taste, with a wide variety of amenities and socializing opportunities. More interested in branding workshops or showers in the bathroom? A color printer or weekly happy hours? This guide will help you navigate the waters.
Green Spaces
Best for: carbon footprint minders
This TriBeCa space is split 60/40 between dedicated desks and communal tables, but everyone here is committed to sustainability, either as a lifestyle or professionally. There are recycling bins and mismatched mugs, floods of natural light and green plants everywhere. Although the sparse, eclectic loft space is furnished with reclaimed furniture and raw wood pallets, it still feels professional, with glassed-in conference rooms. Casual and drop-in members use communal tables in the back, while regulars — whose pursuits range from supplying sustainable fish to promoting rickshaw transport — have dedicated desks. The atmosphere is calm and friendly, and there are “Idea Bounce” lunches, where members offer one another advice.
Cost: $35 a day, $250-$495 a month
Features: Fair trade coffee and tea, printer, 24/7 access
Social scene: Communal lunches, workshops, film screenings
We Work NYC
Best for: New media types, networkers
We Work’s three Manhattan locations offer private desk space in a communal environment; the SoHo branch also has a co-working option, which has taken over the lounge/library. The sleek office space — which offers both splashes of bright color and green touches like recycled paper products and filtered water — holds a couple dozen co-workers, largely bloggers, social media people and writers. Lunchtime workshops help young entrepreneurs navigate the waters of insurance, branding and pitch development while socializing is promoted by monthly mixers and seasonal parties.
Cost: $100 initial fee, then $275-$450 per month
Features: Organic coffee, printing/scanning, 24/7 access, mail delivery, conference rooms, book and magazine library
Social scene: Happy hours, parties, workshops, networking events
In Good Company
Best for: Business-designing women
After years of consulting women entrepreneurs, founders Adelaide Lancaster and Amy Abrams established this Flatiron collective to nurture female business owners, who get plenty of “all-woman networking and women-focused programming” along with office space, says Lancaster. That means classes, affinity groups, and seminars focused not only on professional matters, but also topics like work/life balance. Member companies range from design collectives to nutritionists, all housed in an attractive, comfortable space with exposed brick walls, rotating artwork (by female artists) and feminine touches such as red flowers.
Cost: $400-750 a month
Features: Classes, entrepreneur support, conference rooms, business-book library, mail delivery
Social scene: Workshops, affinity groups, lunch discussion series
New Work City
Best for: Young people who want to rock out at work
If you need dead quiet to get your work done, bypass this unapologetically high-energy space, lorded over by live-wire administrator (or “mayor”) Tony Bacigalupo. The 25-30 members — a youthful crew heavy on techies — share long tables. There is usually music playing, and the organizers aim for the space to be “louder than a library, but quieter than a crowded coffee shop.” Quiet is the rule in the dedicated napping space, however — there’s also a lounge, for those who need a break.
Cost: $30 per day, $300 per month
Features: Coffee, 24/7 access, bike storage, conference rooms, nap space
Social scene: Meetups, classes
Select Office Suites
Best for: The collegial and the corporate
No communal tables or scruffy laptoppers at these ultra-deluxe spaces in Chelsea and Flatiron, which rent offices and executive suites for single-day or long-term use. In addition to round-the-clock support staff and concierge services, they also offer a mind-boggling bounty of extras, ranging from rooftop parties to massages to a soccer team. There’s also a social calendar that includes Atlantic City junkets and poker tournaments, as well as a busy schedule of networking and business development events.
Cost: Call for details
Features: Many, from concierge services to a rooftop deck
Social scene: Parties, many other social and professional gatherings
Sunshine Suites
Best for: Go-getting entrepreneurs
Shrinking violets need not apply to Sunshine Suites, which has locations in Tribeca and NoHo, with a third, city-sponsored branch due to open in the South Bronx in July. At these energetic hubs for entrepreneurs — where managers and tenants alike are called “Shiners” — members come “with a purpose,” says founder Cheni Yerushalmi — “to network, to leverage the fact that you have 1,000 people working around you who can help you.” Connections among the over 1,700 entrepreneurs who work in the mod, high-design spaces are both structured and casual, and newcomers are asked about their three-month networking goal at the door.
Cost: $275-$525 per month
Features: Coffee, printing/copying/scanning, workshops and networking events, 24/7 access, dog friendly, tech support
Social scene: Mixers, athletic teams
Brooklyn Creative League
Best for: Literary types and other arty professionals
The forces that motivated nonprofit consultants Neil Carlson and Erin Carney to found Brooklyn Creative League were the same that have driven many a freelancer to find a workplace outside the home. When their daughter, Leigh, turned 18 months old, “our idyllic blend of work and home life became complicated,” Carlson says.
As the name implies, the tenants lean toward creative pursuits — there are literary agents, writers, web developers, architects. Tenants have individual desks in the sustainably designed, loftlike space, which is housed in a former sweater factory near the Gowanus Canal — but there’s “community if you want it,” Carlson says. Events include weekly potluck lunches, happy hours and “beta Brooklyn” meetups where members can discuss work issues and get advice.
Cost: $225-575 per month
FEATURES: Coffee, printer/scanner/copier, mail delivery, kitchen, lounge
Social scene: Potluck lunches, happy hours, meetups
Studio Guild
Best for: The idealistic and the creative
“Hard-working but friendly” is how partner Tate Hausman, a nonprofit strategist, describes this homey West 27th Street space, which houses some 60 people spread over three floors. Enterprises are typically nonprofit, creative or both — architects, designers and “social change makers” are well represented. People in similar industries often choose to cluster together and share work, which means there’s a lot of casual networking — as well as “epic parties” once or twice a year.
Cost: $475 per month
Features: 24/7 access, wind power, kitchen, conference rooms
Social scene: Occasional parties
Micro Office
Best for: Small businesses looking for a corporate setting
MicroOffice’s three Manhattan spaces are popular with buttoned-down professionals — accountants, lawyers, marketers, consultants. The cubicled spaces offer receptionists, along with quiet décor and subtle hues that will reassure skittish clients — though a brighter, brasher, tech-centric site is in the works.
Cost: $495 per month base rate
Features: Land lines, printer/fax/copier, mail delivery, receptionists
Social scene: Friday coffee breaks
Coworking Brooklyn
Best for: rabble rousers and deal-seekers
“Williamsburg circa 2000 — before everything was super polished” is the scene at the laid-back Coworking Brooklyn, according to co-founder Beka Economopoulos. The frosted-glass storefront houses a blend of designers, web developers, digital media types, writers and nonprofit organizers, who cluster around a shared table or on a couch in the communal room. There are handwritten banners on the wall, an ink donations jar by the printer, and a conference room for phone calls. The arts collective Not an Alternative is attached to the space both philosophically and geographically, so artistic and activist speakers like the Yes Men visit often, along with gallery shows. (The drawback: workers have to pack up early on event days). At $15 a day, this is the cheapest deal in town — and the organizers are open to bartering.
Cost: $15 per day, $150-200 per month
Features: Coffee and tea, printing/scanning, napping loft
Social scene: Happy hours, monthly dinners, evening talks
Greenpoint Coworking
Best for: Low-key Brooklynites.
Graphic designer Sara Bacon opened this space in January for the benefit of the area’s platoons of young, laptop-toting freelancers. The bright, clean-lined space offers floor-to-ceiling windows, a massive blackboard and beanbag chairs; the vibe is low-key and friendly.
Cost: $25 per day, $350 per month
Features: Coffee/tea/snacks, shared kitchen, dog-friendly
Social scene: Networking events and other gatherings
WHERE TO FIND THEM
Brooklyn Creative League
540 President St., Brooklyn
(718) 576-2104; brooklyn-creativeleague.com
Coworking Brooklyn
84 Havemayer St., Brooklyn
917-397-0678; info@brooklyncoworking.com; notanalternative.com/coworking
Green Spaces
394 Broadway, 5th floor
(646) 801-1247; greenspaceshome.com
Greenpoint Coworking
240 N. Henry St., Brooklyn
347-844-9208; greenpointcoworking.com
In Good Company
16 W. 23rd St., 4th Floor
(646) 810-9195; ingoodcompany.com
MicroOffice
36 West 20th St., 122 West 27th St. and 1375 Broadway
(646) 201-5508; microoffice.com
New Work City
412 Broadway at Canal Street
(212) 226-1585; nwc.com
Select Office Suites
116 W. 23rd St.; 1115 Broadway at 25th Street
(888) 692-7353;
selectofficesuites.com
Studio Guild
18 West 27th St.
No phone; studioguild.org
Sunshine Suites
12 Desbrosses St., 419 Lafayette St., 890 Garrison Ave., Bronx
212-624-5856; sunshineny.com
We Work NYC
154 Grand St.; 349 5th Ave.; 1 Little West 12th St.(212) 961-1300; wework.com
thechangeyouwanttosee.com; notalternative.com/coworking