New Tacoma co-working space to offer amenities like golf simulator, on-site restaurants
Co-working spaces in Tacoma are about to gain a competitor whose aim is to boost the types of amenities offered.
UrbanWork, 950 Broadway, is set to open the week of Jan. 8, with a variety of amenities, including a golf simulator, onsite restaurants, a fitness center, parking and more.
The space is part of a reinvention for the Rhodes Center as a new entrepreneur-focused, co-working space with onsite businesses helping to create a self-contained location.
The building was part of a property sale spanning 944 to 956 Broadway, sold by the state of Washington in December 2020 for about $19.6 million to two LLCs affiliated with local and Portland-area investors.
Reid Fetters, owner and founder of UrbanWork Spaces, describes the building’s revamp as creating an “ecosystem” to help entrepreneurs set up work in Tacoma and take co-working spaces to the next level in the city.
“Most of the co-working around here are more just a local business that has a building or they’re part of a building. But they don’t have all the amenities that a large commercial office building would have,” he told The News Tribune in a recent phone interview.
Fetters came to the area from the East Coast four years ago, where he worked as chief real estate development officer for a co-working company there. He came here to start his own co-working business.
He said he first “walked the space” at the Rhodes Center two years ago and is excited for the redevelopment.
“It’s really a boutique design,” Fetters said. “All the office fronts are reclaimed wood. So it has a really cool vibe.”
The existing space for Portland-based Kelly’s Olympian restaurant/bar is being reworked to accommodate it as well as a new space for Sundance Cafe and another restaurant; a juice bar and patio also are in the works, according to Fetters.
For now, he said the co-working space is “over 50 percent pre-leased,” with office spaces accommodating as few as one worker to those accommodating up to four workers still available.
“We have a little bit of every type left,” he said. “Our offices start at $500 a month, and they come with all of the amenities — so parking, Wi-Fi, everything. It’s all turnkey.”
Parking is available at the garage across from 949 Market St. and the accompanying “Rainbow Bridge.”
Fetters also is founder of Tacoma Rising, which promotes local business growth and organizes local real estate tours. The group is working for “more opportunities to create a business community and focus more on Tacoma and less on Seattle,” he said.
He says UrbanWork is part of a broader strategy to “help activate Broadway with all the things we’re doing here. And this is just kind of one piece of the puzzle trying to offer more opportunities to small business entrepreneurs.
“We’re really trying to build an entrepreneurial hub here.”
2024 and beyond
UrbanWork is not the only new Tacoma co-working space set to debut next year with expansive amenities.
Another high-profile site is Old City Hall, 625 Commerce St., with its first phase to open next summer. That phase includes four floors with retail, office, restaurant and co-working space. The remaining areas “that include affordable apartments, retail/commercial space and event space will be completed a year later,” developer Eli Moreno told The News Tribune in August.
Moreno is CEO of Surge Co. and has developed Surge co-working spaces across Tacoma. Surge was chosen by the city in 2018 to enter purchase and redevelopment talks for the building after a competitive bid process. An agreement was approved by City Council the following year.
In September, Moreno acquired the Spark Park building, 745 Commerce St., and is offering monthly parking packages for Old City Hall, according to the OCH website.
For more information
▪ UrbanWork: urbanwork.space
▪ Old City Hall: oldcityhalltacoma.com
