Country’s largest co-working space to open in BGC in June

Spaces, an Amsterdam-born firm, will open in June the largest co-working space in the Philippines, where the demand is “exceptional,” a top official said.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, country manager Lars Wittig said that they are opening the company’s first site in the Philippines with a 500-square meter co-working space.

The first and largest international provider of this type of office space, Spaces will offer competitive rates to both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies, Wittig said.

Spaces, the sister company of world-renown office space provider Regus, will be located at the World Plaza in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, where it would cover the more than 3,000 square meters.

This includes the co-working space, which Wittig calls a “community hall.”

“Co-working space is a term of yesterday. What we are building is a community,” he said, noting that it would even have Wild Flour Bakery + Café Corp. serving Spaces’ patrons.

According to a separate statement, the company said the area would have more than 400 workstations, with ample space for private meetings in offices and meeting rooms.

However, Wittig deferred from disclosing the site’s investment cost, saying that each square meter would at least be “35 percent” more expensive than its counterpart under the Regus brand, the latter already being more expensive than typical commercial leases.

Despite this, he said Spaces World Plaza would offer rates that are “not more expensive” than those being offered by local small players in the market.

Regus has been getting a lot of inquiries in recent months, he said. Each month this 2018 has seen 22 percent to 33 percent more inquiries than the same month last year.

Last month alone, he said they had almost 1,300 inquiries. These, however, are inquiries addressed to Regus. Nevertheless, he said the opening of Spaces on June 4 would take a slice out of that pie.

“As soon as we have the option of Spaces, we’re going to see that split. The trend is really to be part of a community [or a co-working space], and that’s very much a trend here,” he said.

Spaces, founded more than a decade ago, already has some commercial presence in other parts of the globe, such as Europe, the United States, and Asia.

The company is currently considering expanding to two more sites in the Philippines soon, noting that it would just be a “matter of timing.” /vvp