The COVID-19 pandemic changed the working habits of many, with more people taking advantage of working virtually since it started in March 2020. The trend was certainly apparent to zWORKS, which had two shared working spaces.
Executive Director Vickie Hall said zWORKS realized it didn’t need two locations, especially one with too much wide-open space.
So zWORKS, an entrepreneurial and coworking firm, closed its Cedar Street space when the lease was up and kept the 75 E. Pine Street center for now, Hall said.
“We’re calling it shrink to grow,” Hall said. “We still want to take care of our current members who were with us through all of this. With COhatch coming in, we offered current zWORKS members prior to (COhatch) opening to have a dual membership for one year at a discounted rate. COhatch does have more of that open coworking shared space.”
Hall said zWORKS will reevaluate what its spacing needs are in the coming months.
“We can really focus in on our nonprofit mission of providing a low-cost entry for startups and entrepreneurs for professional working spaces and professional resources,” she said.
Hall said zWorks was established in 2015 at the Cedar Street space.
“Before COVID, people were working in more open and collaborative spaces with teams with startups,” Hall said. “People were working in more open spaces. We had a couple of conference rooms and a couple private dedicated rooms for startups.”
Hall said the Pine Street office opened in 2018 as entrepreneurs wanted to have client meetings and team rooms.
“So, there was a need for more conference rooms and we added three dedicated offices for startup businesses,” Hall said. “Then, obviously, COVID hits and we had new kinds of members that weren’t used to the shared working environment. We were seeing the majority of our members were using the Pine Street location for meeting room space, including our startup businesses.”
Hall said many startups operate from home and then meet at zWORKS two to three times a week.
Hall said a lot of the larger rooms were some of the least-used rooms at Cedar Street. The three private booth rooms became popular for quick Zoom meetings.
Hall said monthly and annual memberships are available.
