National coworking company buys entire 12-story tower on Main Street
Novel Coworking, a Chicago-based company, announced Wednesday that it has purchased a 12-story building in downtown Columbia, at the corner of Main and Lady streets, with plans to renovate the building and open it as flexible coworking office space.
“Novel Coworking is excited to come to Columbia because of the great progress and vibrancy that has been generated there and all the positive momentum that business professionals in the area have created,” company founder Bill Bennett said. “Columbia, on paper, looks like one of the strongest-growth economies in the future, in our viewpoint.”
The 159,000 square feet of offices at 1122 Lady St., across the street from Cantina 76 restaurant in one direction and First Citizens Bank in the other, will be Novel Coworking’s first footprint in South Carolina. Its closest locations are in Charlotte and Savannah.
Coworking, or shared office spaces, has been a trend on the rise for several years. It’s a trend driven in part by modern businesses’ desire to grow quickly, investing more in their services and less in their location, Bennett said.
One of the most recognizable international names in coworking, WeWork, grew rapidly before recently crashing into the reality of financial losses far outweighing the company’s profits.
While similar in concept to WeWork, Novel Coworking sets itself apart — and hopes to avoid its competitor’s pitfalls — by purchasing, rather than leasing, all of the properties it converts to coworking space, Bennett said.
“We’re the key stakeholder by owning the buildings and making long-term decisions in the best interest of the building and intend to be there,” Bennett said. “We just have a different view of the world” than WeWork.
A local company, SOCO, has built a thriving flexible office space model in Columbia focused on supporting creative and tech-driven small businesses and individuals, many of them local entrepreneurs.
“What makes us unique and what’s going to allow us to continue to thrive is that we invest all our energy not in fancy buildings or all that other mess, but really investing in the community,” said Greg Hilton, who founded SOCO in 2014. “We’re growing, and we’ve got a great community of people.”
In five years, SOCO has grown to about 200 members and 75 member companies, Hilton said. It has workspace locations at the BullStreet development and at Vista 80808 on Lady Street, in the former Vista Studios artists’ space.
“We see a lot of opportunity to continue to support Columbia and to help this entrepreneurial, creative community grow,” Hilton said. “I think it’s great that we’re growing as a community and a city and that other people are recognizing what’s going on here.”
Compared to SOCO’s primary base of creative and tech-based members, Novel Coworking expects to attract companies and individuals largely in the professional services sector, such as attorneys, architects, engineers, consultants, and media and marketing professionals., Bennett said.
The Novel Coworking offices will feature a mixture of private and collaborative open working spaces with high-speed internet, modern furnishing and amenities including an espresso bar, local beer on tap and community events. Columbia members also will have access to any of Novel’s other 35 work spaces across the country.
Coworking memberships for individuals will start at $129 a month, along with private offices starting at $475 a month and office suites starting at $210 per employee a month.
Novel plans to renovate the Lady Street building and hopes to open to its new members around June 2020, Bennett said.
Current tenants of the building, which include a bank and some city government offices, could remain in the building if they choose to, Bennett said.
Bennett said he expects 500 to 1,000 people eventually could work inside the Novel building. The bulk of Novel’s customer base is five- to 10-year old firms that are growing with four to seven employees, Bennett said.
Novel tends to host businesses that are looking to attract young, educated new employees, Bennett said, adding that Columbia is a prime location for those opportunities.
“Columbia has great fundamentals,” Bennett said. “What you’re looking for are growth in the educated populace and an increase in young and educated workers and a robust area where people want to live, work and play. When I look at the downtown, I’m just a big fan and a big believer.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
