Houston Sees Nation’s Largest Coworking Space Growth In Q2
Houston’s coworking market saw the nation's most robust growth in the second quarter, bringing the city to seventh place among the top 25 markets based on the number of flex workspaces, a new study indicates.
Houston’s coworking market grew 16% from Q1 to Q2, bringing its total number of flex workspaces to 208 from 180, according to the report from CoworkingCafe. National coworking stock climbed to 6,163 workspaces, a 10% increase from the previous quarter, per the report.
This growth helped Houston move ahead of Boston in the ranking, with Boston ending Q2 with 197 coworking facilities, up from 185. Houston is significantly more populous than Boston but still trails the city in coworking square footage.
Houston has about 4.16M SF of coworking space, putting it in eighth place nationally. Boston has 4.82M SF spread across its fewer locations, according to the report.
Manhattan remains safely in first place with 14.45M SF, followed by Los Angeles with 6.71M SF.
Half of the top 25 markets saw an increase in the average size of coworking spaces, while Houston saw a decrease. Houston’s average coworking space dropped from 20.4K SF to 20K SF between Q1 and Q2, the report says.
One of Houston’s newest coworking spaces is The Cannon, an innovation, technology and entrepreneurship hub that opened within Amegy Bank’s newly renovated building in The Woodlands. This is the seventh physical location for The Cannon, CEO Jon Lambert told Bisnow. All of its locations are in the Houston area.
The Cannon started in 2017 with a mission of providing support and services for the startup and innovation community, opening its first physical location in 2019. It went into rapid expansion mode after the onset of the pandemic, when hybrid work gained significant popularity.
There is a course correction happening, with companies finding a happy hybrid medium after transitioning from everyone working in an office to everyone working at home, Lambert said.
“A lot of the large corporate organizations are looking at the ‘office of the future model,’ which is, maybe people don't have to be here all the time, but there is value in bringing people together,” he said. “The coworking world is solving for some of the corporate real estate challenges and financial issues that not only the real estate owners but the corporations are dealing with, and creating a hybrid model.”
Prior to The Woodlands unveiling, The Cannon opened a Fish Creek location in December. The Cannon is eyeing about 25 different opportunities in Houston and beyond, including other growing suburbs like Waller and Fulshear, Lambert said.
“That's really been a benefit of the folks that are up there who want access to our community and all of our resources but don't want to have to drive into town or west Houston,” Lambert said.
An aversion to commuting is a contributing factor to Houston’s coworking growth, he said.
“If you look at any city with the population of Houston, you've got so many corporate entities here, large organizations with large employee bases,” Lambert said. “People want to find a place to go, a community to be part of. … If they can find that in their backyard, that’s a big part of it.”
