Downtown Puyallup has a new coworking space. Here’s what to know
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Empower PNW launched Empower House coworking at 503 S. Meridian in Puyallup.
- Space offers daily drop-in access, memberships, boardroom, podcast and content studios.
- Pricing and access include $19 daily drop-in, $79–$99 monthly and $65 hourly rentals.
It all started with an idea scribbled on the back of a napkin.
Kelsey Knutson, a business coach, was tired of going to the same, monotonous networking groups over and over again.
So, she called up her friends Taryn and Michelle Wallace. Taryn Wallace is a loan officer at Guild Mortgage, and Michelle Wallace is a real estate agent at Keller Williams. The trio attended Washington State University together, and Taryn Wallace later married Michelle Wallace’s brother.
They met at a Starbucks and pooled their collective brainpower into opening a new group for female entrepreneurs: Empower PNW.
Knutson said she wanted the group to serve as “a way for business owners to get together and share common problems and ideas and hold each other accountable.”
Three and a half years later, Empower PNW has expanded to more than 40 members. And now, the group has a new Puyallup coworking space, Empower House, to call home.
“The coworking space doesn’t really exist in Puyallup,” Michelle Wallace said. “There’s Tacoma coworking and Seattle coworking, but even the concept is still new to people in Puyallup.”
The new space held its grand opening on Oct. 8.
What is Empower House?
Empower House is located at 503 S. Meridian in the Village Fair Shopping Center. It is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, and residents can drop in whenever they need a motivational place to work.
“I work from home, I have four children,” Taryn Wallace said. “If I’m working from home and I’m on a Zoom call, even if I have child care, they will still come down once in a while. Or I will be distracted by the laundry in the corner, or the mess on the floor. If I have three hours, I can come here, headphones in, and come get it done.”
The Empower House coworking space includes:
- A kitchenette with a microwave and coffee bar
- Tables with power in them, so guests don’t have to look around for an outlet
- Couches
- A board room to rent out for team meetings, workshops or brainstorm sessions
- A podcast studio
- A content studio
“I think our space in general, we want people to walk in the door and feel the space to be taken care of,” Taryn Wallace said. “Things that you can use if you’re hosting a class, hosting a workshop. We try to make sure that when you walk through the door, it’s a stress relief and not a stressor.”
The atmosphere is warm, with furniture and decorations adorning the room with splashes of pink, blue and white. Flowers are neatly arranged on every table. A disco ball-themed background shines in the content studio. Motivational paintings coat the walls, with words such as “Business as Usual” and “Do Epic S—.”
The trio say that you don’t have to be a woman or an entrepreneur to join the space.
“It’s $19 a day to co-work,” Michelle Wallace said. “That’s cheaper than a lot of coffee shops if you get food or drink.”
For people who don’t want to pay $19 every time they want to co-work, there are memberships they can take advantage of:
- $79 a month to freely use the coworking space whenever your schedule allows.
- $99 a month to join the group, Empower PNW, and access the coworking space.
Guests can also pay to rent parts of the space whenever they need it:
- $65 per hour for the boardroom
- $65 per hour for the podcast studio
- $79 per hour for the content studio
- $250 to rent out the entire Empower House for events such as a baby shower, a bridal shower or a networking event.
Knutson said they first got the idea for Empower House about a year ago when the Empower PNW group was struggling to find a stable spot to meet.
“Our meetings were always in different locations – we were nomads,” Michelle Wallace said. “We wanted people to showcase where they worked and said they could host the meeting, have a spotlight of their own business, and then we came quick to find out that not a lot of people in our group have brick-and-mortars and spaces and didn’t have spaces large enough to host us.”
Then, one of its members offered the women the chance to buy the space, which used to be an eyelash studio. They came up with the idea for Empower House in October 2024, got the keys to the space in December, and “soft launched” in January.
Empower House’s grand opening wasn’t until eight months later, because Knutson went on maternity leave and it took the trio a while to fully furnish and decorate the space.
“We were functional but we weren’t pretty yet,” Michelle Wallace quipped. “We have our makeup on now, because we have the decor and everything.”
What is Empower PNW?
Three and a half years after the group first launched in February 2022, Empower PNW is still going strong. The trio told The News Tribune they have more than 40 members, most of them female entrepreneurs, who work in a variety of industries – ranging from insurance, accounting, artificial intelligence, marketing, beauty and photography.
“We have someone in our group who doesn’t even technically own her own business,” Michelle Wallace said. “She works for a German company, but she works here and just wants community.”
Empower PNW meets on the third Tuesday of every month from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The subject varies; the last meeting was about breath work and burnout. The next one, led by Knutson, will dive into goal planning for 2026.
There are three other group events, each happening once per quarter:
- “Boss Up,” a hands-on workshop where group members plan out the next quarter of their business.
- “Content Day,” with a workshop for members who engage in content creation.
- “Wine Wednesday,” a day for group members to let their hair down, drink wine and chat.
It costs $39 to attend a single group meeting, $59 a month just to join the group, and $99 a month to join the group and use the coworking space.
“We’re networking, but I feel like that word can have a negative taste in people’s mouths. We’re just community,” Knutson said. “I want to know about your kids, I want to know about your life, I want to know about your business. And by the way, what problem do you have and how can we help solve it?”
The trio said the thing they were most excited about with Empower House is the chance to embark on a new adventure together.
“The three of us are really strong personalities and it compliments each other,” Knutson said. “There’s absolutely no way any of us would want to do this by ourselves.”
Residents can learn more at their website, empowerpnw.com.
This story was originally published October 19, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
