Web Worker Daily

Portland, Ore., has had more than its fair share of trouble from the current recession — it’s seen the biggest drop in employment of any metro area in the country, with jobless rates clocking in at a dismal 12.2 percent in June. But despite the gloomy picture, there are some sunny spots — notably the city’s coworking spaces.

While it remains to be seen whether coworking spaces can be profitable, the founders I spoke with in Portland say they’re up to the challenge. Many learned a valuable lesson from Portland’s first coworking space, Cubespace, which closed its doors last month. The company reportedly made several business missteps, including its monthly lease, said to have been an eye-popping 15-year, personally guaranteed agreement. Its successors, meanwhile, say that by balancing real estate costs, unearthing additional revenue streams, and feeding specific communities’ needs, their coworking spaces will be around for many years to come. Here’s a look at three of them: Read the rest of this entry »

CubeSpace, a coworking space and community based in Portland, Ore., that we’ve featured previously (see Dawn’s interview with co-owner Eva Schweber) has announced that it is to shut its doors this Friday, June 12, following negotiations with US Bank, its landlord.

It is a great shame to see an established and well-liked coworking community being forced to close. As Imran noted in his post “Can Coworking Spaces Be Profitable?“, coworking spaces often run on paper-thin margins, sometimes only just breaking even, or relying on being subsidized by a sponsor. Despite increasing demand for coworking space, the tough economic climate means that many of these communities will need to discover innovative ways to generate revenue in order to survive.