Coworking spaces popular among small businesses, entrepreneurs

A“death doula” and the owner of a residential solar company might not seem like coworkers, but they share an office in Downtown Albuquerque.

In Albuquerque and across the country, more and more entrepreneurs and small businesses are opting for coworking spaces over more traditional brick-and-mortar office buildings. It’s an office concept that has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic because more companies are allowing employees to work a hybrid-style of remote and office work.

One coworking space that continues to thrive is FatPipe ABQ in the former library building at the old Albuquerque High School, which has been converted into the Lofts at Albuquerque High, 200 Broadway NE. FatPipe ABQ is one of the original coworking spaces in New Mexico and will celebrate 10 years of operation in July.

“Basically the concept is 24/7 access to small businesses and entrepreneurs who don’t want to have to deal with all of the extra stuff,” said Lisa J. Adkins, chief operating officer and director of FatPipe New Mexico. “When you rent space, we’re the landlord, we’re going to fix things. There’s no extra fees, they don’t have to pay for utilities, everything’s included, 24/7 access, great internet, all utilities included, great events. We help promote their businesses.”

The rise in coworking spaces is because they can be more cost-effective, while giving employees more flexibility.

“It’s less expensive, there’s no commitment, all of your leasing terms are month to month,” Adkins said. “There’s fewer rules and it’s easier to get out of a situation if it’s not working for you. And not everybody likes to work from home.”

While many people started working from home during the pandemic, Adkins said many are seeking to return to an office but still want to keep their independence and flexibility.

Danielle Slupesky, a certified end-of-life coach and death doula, said she pays about $350 per month at FatPipe ABQ. She said the fee includes a working space, access to the conference room and common areas as well as the use of printers and copiers.

“I’m an early riser,” Slupesky said. “I tend to do things early, so I’ll be the only one in here at 5 in the morning, which is also kind of nice, and then everybody else starts to trickle in and I can go about my day and sometimes come back in the evening to finish up paperwork.”

Slupesky also enjoys the camaraderie among FatPipe ABQ users.

“It’s super helpful to get groups of people together,” she said. “We’re missing opportunities for community circles, especially after the pandemic. And that’s another thing, is we have people who work here who have perfectly accessible office space in their homes and just don’t want to be alone. ‘”

Mia Petersen, the executive director and CEO for the New Mexico Tech Council, said FatPipe ABQ has been a great supporter of her nonprofit.

“As a small nonprofit, their contribution in terms of providing a space in kind for membership is tremendous,” Petersen said. “As a small organization, we save a lot in overhead in being part of the coworking space. It also provides the team with a lot of quality of life where we can work remote, or on days that we need to collaborate, we can come in. We love that sort of ability to work asynchronously.”

Being able to move around in a pleasant atmosphere while taking business calls is a bonus for Mark Kelly, owner of Photon Rainbow, a residential solar company.

“I walk a lot, I’m on the phone most of the time, so the courtyard is really cool for me and it’s right on the edge of Downtown, so access to lots of restaurants and just conveniently located,” Kelly said of FatPipe ABQ.

Kelly said he also enjoys sharing a working space with professionals in different industries.

FatPipe also has a location in the East Mountains, and its BioScience Center, 5901 Indian School NE, is in high demand. The center has been open for about 11 years and is 100% full in terms of lab space.

“We have 10 wet labs, which are chemistry and biology labs, and we cater to startups and life sciences for the lab space,” Adkins said. “We’ve got some really cool companies that are taking large amounts of lab space like Circular Genomics, which is a local New Mexico startup. ... We have a really cool company called TS-Nano, and they’ve developed some polymers that line oil wells so that they don’t leak. And we’ve got some other smaller biotech companies here doing research and development. And then the rest of the space, we’ve kind of opened up as traditional office space.”

John Ransom, senior vice president and principal of Colliers New Mexico-El Paso, said remote working spaces had been happening to some extent prior to the pandemic. He said the pandemic accelerated the concept.

“It wasn’t just the pandemic that created all of this, but it certainly moved things to make it happen much sooner than probably would have happened organically,” Ransom said. “We started seeing a lot of office space users trying out new, different spaces where they had gone to a complete open space where people could come and go. Some of that stuff was already somewhat happening. I think what we’re seeing here is that it’s just a continuation of the kind of hybrid workspace, as opposed to just template remote work.”

The ability to work at a coworking space can be an asset in attracting new hires. Additionally, offices are changing their floorplans to make workplaces more inviting.

“You need a game room, we need ping pong, we need more outlets, video game rooms,” Ransom said. “And so there’s still a lot of that stuff being designed into a lot of new offices you see. We have a group that’s putting in quiet rooms or sleep rooms, mothering stations. They have private areas for those deals all being built in.”

Overall, Ransom said business owners have realized the need to make offices an environment where employees want to be. Offices also are implementing meeting areas such as coffee bars in the center of the floorplan to allow for interaction between staff and upper management.

Coworking spaces also allow people to interact with others in different lines of work.

“FatPipe is a success story for envisioning an incubator space for people that are coming into new entrepreneurial businesses. You can also have a new attorney or patent attorney, and you could have a new engineer or a new marketing person or advertising, you get all of those people kind of collaborating on individual projects where you can help each other create companies,” Ransom said. “So those types of deals are absolutely awesome.”

Ransom said the appeal to working remotely is the flexibility to take care of both personal and professional matters without conflict.

“I just go shop for an elderly parent or even my own kids or go to a doctor’s appointment, and if you have some flexibility on a Thursday, where you’re not going into the office but you can get up in the morning and get your work done,” Ransom said. “If you’re one of those industries that allows for it, (to allow employees to) run a few errands and still be very efficient, I think that makes for a happy employee and a loyal employee. And those are all very important things for the office and workforce.”