Industrious Opening 10th Atlanta Location At Fourth Ward

CBRE-backed flexible office provider Industrious is opening yet another Metro Atlanta location at New City Properties' mammoth Eastside project. 

Industrious has agreed to a deal with New City to operate a 28K SF coworking space at Fourth Ward, the 480K SF mixed-use building across from the iconic Ponce City Market.

Industrious follows Mailchimp, which is moving its headquarters from PCM to the new building in the historic Old Fourth Ward neighborhood of Midtown Atlanta. Advertising and PR conglomerate WPP also pre-leased nearly 39K SF at the building in December.

HITT Contracting filed an application with the city of Atlanta May 3 to start interior construction for Industrious at 505 Angier Ave., one of the three interconnected office buildings that make up Fourth Ward.

New City President Jim Irwin said he planned from the project's inception to include a floor of coworking space, especially given what prospective tenants want in today’s office environment.

"Most tenants are still struggling to understand how much space they will actually need. I can’t tell you how many office tours begin with the phrase, 'We don’t know if we need 20, 30, 40K SF. We need to move a few people here immediately so we can get around to figuring out what our real market is,'" Irwin told Bisnow in an interview Tuesday. "We always anticipated that this was something we would always do."

Midtown has proven to be a strong submarket for Industrious, said Peri Demestihas, its senior vice president of real estate. The Fourth Ward space will be the fifth location in Midtown for the coworking giant, joining Ponce City Market, the Silhouette Midtown, 999 Peachtree and 976 Brady Ave. in West Midtown. Industrious also has locations in Central Perimeter, Buckhead and Downtown Atlanta.

While Industrious’ bread-and-butter customers are large companies leasing private offices, Demestihas said access passes, which allows companies to offer their employees access to Industrious spaces without having to lease a private office, are becoming a popular option.

“I think the access passes are really going to be instrumental moving forward,” he said. 

Irwin said having a flexible office or coworking space in buildings is becoming a key attraction for companies that are still uncertain just how much office space they’re going to need, especially if they’re opening new hubs in the region.

“A lot of these tours begin with, ‘I need six people here tomorrow,’” Irwin said. “There are numerous tenants like that right now who may or may not be trying to wait out the economic situation, but have plans to grow.”

New City also is in talks with Industrious to allow members of its Overline private club — for which it built a boutique hotel and apartments with a rooftop bar, a swimming pool and a restaurant next to the office buildings — access to the coworking facility as part of their membership. It’s part of an effort to increase amenity options for workers and residents of Fourth Ward. 

Amenities are driving the popularity of coworking, both for companies and workers, said Britt Riley, the CEO of The Haven Collection, a growing chain of daycare facilities that offer working parents coworking space and gyms in the same facility where their children are located. Haven has three locations in the Northeast, with plans to open a New York City location.

“At the end of the day, what we’re providing for people besides a great place to work … We’re helping to provide a community for people,” Riley said. “That is the healthy middle ground between the employer and employee.”

Industrious is set to open its Fourth Ward location by the end of the year.