Industrious Expands In SoCal; Partners With EQ Office To Open Second Location In Costa Mesa

Industrious continues its expansion march in Southern California.

The coworking company announced it will open its second location in Orange County in as many years and partner with Blackstone's EQ Office to manage the tenant experience for EQ's five-building Canvas office project in Costa Mesa.

Industrious Senior Director of Real Estate Katharine Lau said the company will open a 30K SF coworking space at Canvas.

Industrious operates most of its spaces as management deals with the landlords, rather than the WeWork model of direct leasing, an arrangement that is becoming more popular after WeWork's fall flameout.

Industrious opened its first location in Orange County last year at LBA Realty's 3333 Park Place tower in Irvine and has eight locations in Los Angeles. 

"The local economy remains strong, as does the demand for flexible workspaces, witnessed by our existing location in the market," Lau said in an emailed statement to Bisnow. "Nationwide, we're also witnessing an increased appetite for dynamic, integrated live-work-play centers. Partnering with EQ Office allows us to deliver these future-of-work destinations — we look forward to continuing our relationship in Costa Mesa and beyond."

Industrious' move comes a few months after it raised $80M in new funding. Brookfield Properties Retail and Equinox led the funding round.  

After WeWork's disastrous attempt to go public ended with a $39B valuation cut, coworking companies such as Industrious continue to march on and fill the demand for flexible office space. 

With EQ Office, Industrious will be responsible for handling the tenant experience such as features, amenities and programming at the five-building, 538K SF Canvas campus. This is the second time Industrious and EQ have teamed up. The two collaborated at EQ's Playa District, a six-building, 1.4M SF campus in Playa Vista.

Industrious officials said it would create new common spaces and curate programming for tenants across the Canvas campus to "deliver a more productive and engaging workplace environment," according to a news release.

The new coworking office is slated to open in the first quarter.