US: Thor Equities has signed up workspace manager Industrious as a partner to operate its 36,000-square-foot coworking space in Midtown Manhattan.
Industrious will manage the three-storey space at 25 West 39th Street, which is currently managed by Thor’s coworking platform Congregate. The space will be co-branded. Other coworking providers in the building, located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, include The Wing and Spark Labs. The Midtown building was built in 1907 to house The Engineering Society, which counted Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison as members. In 1961, the society moved and the building was converted to office space.
Industrious also manages coworking space for landlords including Hines and Macerich.
“It’s the first swell of something that’s going to become a giant wave by the end of the summer,” said Industrious CEO Jamie Hodari. “The trend is asset-owners bringing in someone to manage a flexible work unit, or workspace-as-a-service unit, or coworking location — either one that they’re currently self-operating, or where there’s another operator in place that things aren’t working out with.”
Last month Knotel announced it plans to hand back around a million square feet of its five-million-square-foot portfolio, with a large percentage of that space located in Manhattan.
“Industrious has built a remarkable business model and we are pleased to bring them on as an operating partner for our flexible workspace platform at 25 West 39th Street,” said Thor chairman Joe Sitt.
