Venkat, Good post -- I haven't completed reading the whole post yet -- will leave a comment after I do. However, I just wanted to say that this is a very interesting and relevant discussion for someone like me who is trying to become a space catalyst/owner. I am curious to get the views of experienced space owners in this group.
I also agree with David's comment about CRE crash -- I personally know at least 3 friends who were told by their employers that they no longer will have cubicles for them at the office and that they will have to work remotely. This seems to be the trend right now with both small and big companies. As David pointed out, this trend will definitely help coworking in the short term atleast in few cities. Ashok On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 9:47 PM, David Doolin <[email protected]>wrote: > > Good post. I left a comment. > > Here are some other things: > > 1. We're just about to have one of the biggest > Commericial Real Estate crashes, ever. CRE always > lags residential, and it's just getting started. I've > watched my whole working life as companies reduce > the dignity of their professional employees through > first reducing office size, then eliminating private > office in favor of cubes, then finally driving employees > right out of the building. This may change, and I > suspect it almost *has* to change in the future. > For one, CRE rents are probably going to fall, possibly > by a lot. If that happens, the pendulum will swing > back to keeping people in the office. Back in > the midwest, where parking is cheap, not only > is one expected to appear at work, one is expected > to be *punctual*: "Our workday starts at 7:30am." > Management driven to cut infrastructure costs drove workers > out of the office. Management without that constraint > is going to want people IN the office, where they > can keep an eye on them. > > 2. The high cost of CRE makes it very difficult > to bootstrap a business. If VC funding would > dry up for a few years, CRE rents would fall back > to a sustainable level. That is, rents would be inline > with what a business's customer base could > support. And a business with a lot of customers > is going to be too busy serving those customers > to worry about sharing the costs of a community > workspace. > > But there is still a lot of opportunity in the coworking > space. I believe every neighborhood in SF with a > business district could support at least one space > (except Marina/Cow Hollow *cough*), and many could support > several (Mission, Castro, Potrero Hill, SOMA, etc). > > In my opinion, the biggest potential market (or customer > base) for coworking is hardly discussed: Early retirement > aged Boomers (IANAB). Talented, hard-working, with > a lot of skills, and utterly unemployable people. > > I'll close with that. > > -d > > > > > > On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 6:46 PM, Venkat <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > I have been reading this group and following the conversations for a > > couple of months, though I haven't yet found a way to take the plunge. > > Hope you guys find my latest blog post on coworking entertaining; it > > combines a review of "I'm out of here" with some general thoughts on > > the movement: > > > > > http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/04/15/coworking-im-outta-here-by-jones-sundsted-and-bacigalupo/ > > > > Regards, > > > > Venkat > > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
