Could co-working spaces be the way of working in the future?

SAN ANTONIO – The way people work, how they work, and where they work has been changing over the last few years.

Both businesses and their employees saw a huge shift to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now co-working spaces could be the future of the work force.

“We raise money for oil and gas exploration, mostly here in Texas. When a well needs to be drilled, we go out there and find the money to drill it,” Jason Guckian, Veritex CEO and co-founder said.

Veritex is one of the many companies that is now housed in Venture X, located on the city’s Northwest Side.

“Whenever you can come to a place like Venture X, well, most of that’s taken care of for you, right? You can come in and it’s turnkey. It’s right there. And, you know, just walk right in, and start doing business,” Guckian said.

Jim Garrett owns Venture X-Northwest and has seen a shift working in real time.

“You have a sense of community. You have a sense of being able to have other people help you build your brand. And it gives you a very cost effective way to come to work. It’s also convenient to where you actually live and work,” Garrett said. “In the last 18 months, CBRE has invested $300 million in co-working spaces. So you’ve had an explosion of growth with us. We’ve gone from one space about six years ago to in total, about 140 spaces right now.”

There has been immense growth in co-working spaces since the pandemic around the country and around Texas, and it could be just the start.

“We’ve got about another 200 and some stage of development. And what you’re going to find is that even though it’s about 5% of the workforce right now, in ten years, it’s going to be about 30% of the workforce. So this is the fastest growing segment of the commercial real estate market,” Garrett said.

Garrett said they are looking at building another four possible locations. They’re looking at the Houston market, San Marcos, College Station and in Waco as well.

And he isn’t the only one who sees setups like these as the way of working in the future.

“I do. I do think it’s the future of the workforce, because while working at home is viable for some industries, it’s not viable for every industry. And there’s a huge difference in accountability and there’s a huge difference in the ability to perform when you go to a place,” Guckian said.

If you want to learn more about Venture X, you can do so by clicking here.