Portland looks to play catch-up as coworking sector heats up

Portland coworking operations continue to siphon clients from traditional offices as the shared-space market heats up.

Remote.ly, which will double its size, said this week it will stretch across two additional floors at its North Mississippi Avenue hub starting next month.

One floor will house the live-video startup Brandlive while another will make way for a 12-person office that has been pre-leased, a 22-person office that has not been leased and meeting and event spaces, Remote.ly founder Oliver Alexander said. The latter spaces can accommodate such events as offsite corporate meetings, dance parties and weddings.

The expansion comes after Remote.ly's competitor CENTRL Office landed a deal to house the Portland office of real estate firm Cresa. Cresa moved in at the end of 2019. The two developments reflect how some Portland tenants want to save on such costs as furnishing their offices and back away from longer-term leases.

Coworking setups can give professionals from all walks of work places to conduct business, whether they’re freelancers renting desks for the day or startups taking up entire floors. To lure customers, operators dangle flexible schedules and many amenities... [Read the full article at Portland Business Journal]