The concept of coworking is old news to major U.S. cities such as San Francisco and Denver, but Columbus is following the trend with the addition of Qwirk Columbus Coworking in the German Village.
Coworking is the concept of gathering individual workers - often stay-at-home professionals - into the same work space to share office costs.
Vitaliy Levit, one of the first patrons to rent a desk at Qwirk, is hard at work. Levit launched his most recent endeavor, antitow.com, from his space at Qwirk."The business is really a cooperative mentality," said Neal Roberts, owner of Qwirk. "It's like-minded people coming together in a community. It follows the whole 'it takes a village' idea. To anyone who's struggling, the coworking space gives a viable alternative to working from home."
Roberts does not only want to aim the business at work-from-home professionals; his goal is to expand and target students, especially those at Ohio State. Through networking, Luke Barbara, incoming president of the Business Builders Club at OSU, has met with Qwirk owners and experienced the Qwirk atmosphere.
"The Business Builders club is the student entrepreneurship organization, and we connect current and aspiring entrepreneurs with the knowledge to build business and do networking," said Barbara, a junior in chemical engineering. "We have a relationship with Qwirk because they offered to let us use their space."
Qwirk does allow non-members to rent conference rooms for meetings and presentations, and also to rent the full Qwirk space for nighttime events, Roberts said.
Qwirk is also offering discounts to all college students of $5 a day to use the business.
"I think the company is very new, and I'm very interested to see how students will react," Barbara said. "There will be some people who won't leave the bubble of campus, but I think we'll be surprised by how many students will embrace it and use it. It's a cool location, and I think students will really like what it has to offer, since they can experience a new part of town they might not otherwise see."
Business in the first month for Qwirk has been "better than expected" said Roberts, who thinks students will get many benefits from choosing to work and network at Qwirk.
"Many people here have started up businesses, and there's ways in which the students can find internships and mentors here," Roberts said. "I'm interested in finding out how that would fly with students. I'm interested in knowing how students could meet their next boss. If we could keep students here through that process, that's great. The retention of young people is critical to the Columbus community."
The idea of coworking has been around for a few years, and began with independent professionals, Roberts said. Roberts himself used to live and run his business in Boulder, Colo., and knew a man who turned a building into a coworking model.
"People liked it because they couldn't have afforded the office on their own," Roberts said. "You get to share the cost. That stuck with me, and when I moved here I knew it was something I wanted to do."
Roberts said New York and San Francisco house some of the first models of coworking buildings.
"I believe it was driven because people realized it was nice to work near someone else," Roberts said. "In the last few years it's gone from there. Not many people have seen Columbus as the next stepping stone, so I'm proud of this."
According to Roberts, there are two main types of membership at Qwirk: dedicated desk memberships and mobile memberships.
"We have 26 desks," Roberts said. "Dedicated desks are for people who can't take working from home. They get to pick a desk. No one touches it, and they get that space. Mobile memberships are more for people who travel, and they just pick an open desk when they come in."
Perks for members of Qwirk include secure Internet, lockers, printing services, a conference room, mail collection service, a common room, coffee machine, snacks, a kitchen and a recess room.
"The recess room has a couch, television and [PlayStation 3], and we're taking requests from our members on what else we should include in the room," Roberts said. "I like to throw darts on the dartboard in there."
Dedicated desk memberships cost $250 a month, mobile memberships are $150 a month, and a daily fee is $10. Qwirk is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and dedicated desk members have access 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Qwirk is located at 595 S. Third St. in German Village, above G. Michael's restaurant. Free parking is available in the parking lot, and there is street parking around the building. Parking permits can be purchased for $15 a year.
"We've been generating awareness of the business, and I encourage people to come check it out," Roberts said. "Once people come in, they usually think, 'Wow, this could really work for me.' The more we settle in, the more we're hearing it's great."
Caitlin O'Neil can be reached at oneil.97@osu.edu.
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