Beyond the coast
IWG Canada is broadening its network of co-working space beyond the Lower Mainland, with the opening of locations in Kelowna and Victoria.
Well known in the Lower Mainland for offering space under the Spaces and Regus brands, the company had initially opened a Regus-branded space in Kelowna at the Landmark business complex.
Now, after four years of development, the new Spaces location at the Kelowna Innovation Centre in the city’s core will offer 22,000 square feet of space with 59 desks.
The venue is smaller than the typical Spaces location, which runs between 40,000 and 80,000 square feet, and serves as the company’s flagship offering. However, it debuts with a full calendar of events for professional development and community interaction. (Many community development groups see co-working spaces as amenities to neighbourhoods, infusing dynamism and energy to the surrounding areas.)
Meanwhile, the company is also preparing to open a 25,000-square-foot Spaces location in Victoria, where it already operates two locations under the Regus banner.
“[Regus] really started when … a solopreneur needed a place to operate and function within the commercial real estate world,” Wayne Berger, CEO for IWG Canada and Latin America, explained last year.
The scale and prime locations of the Spaces venues took the initial concept to a more dynamic level.
“What we’re trying to build is a different environment that caters to a different type of clientele than we would traditionally find in a Regus,” he said. “The size gives us an opportunity to build a really vibrant ecosystem within the building.”
Space to compare
Co-working rates in IWG Canada’s premises outside Metro Vancouver are competitive with dedicated office space. Posted rates for a spot at the Kelowna Innovation Centre are $13.70 to $18.90 per person daily, based on a 24-month agreement; the existing Regus space charges $17.30 to $23.80 a person on the same terms.
Kelowna office rents in Colliers International’s latest report on the market (from 2018) average $17.60 a square foot.
The standard office lease rate doesn’t include a fully staffed front desk or “stellar coffee,” not to mention access to a “state-of-the-art 97-seat theatre with 4K laser light projector, 20-foot screen and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound.”
Moreover, membership at one location opens doors at others, making it small wonder that uptake of IWG’s spaces – and co-working spaces generally – have become popular among startups seeking a collaborative workspace that’s a step up from the coffee shop but without the overhead (and underwhelmingness) of a traditional office.
Positive politics?
The federal election is less than a month away but there’s plenty of water yet to pass under the bridge. Liberal Party of Canada managers, for example, hadn’t cast the party’s 2015 platform into the waters of forgetfulness as this column was penned last week.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already voiced his admiration of B.C.’s speculation and vacancy tax, recently championed by B.C. Finance Minister Carole James as highly effective. The tax had garnered $115 million for provincial coffers in the 15 months that ended March 31, 2019.
The sum made an impression on Trudeau, who has expressed support for a similar national tax of 1% as part of what his party tags #positivepolitics. (Sunny ways, my friends!)
Of course, with an empty-home tax in Vancouver, the provincial speculation and vacancy tax and an elevated property transfer tax on foreign nationals who buy residential properties and then (according to the prevailing narrative) leave them vacant, how much difference will a nominal federal tax make, at least in B.C.?
With other parts of the world posing significant risk to freedom and capital, our taxes might be a short-term price many are willing to pay for long-term peace of mind in a part of the world that, by most accounts, still seems affordable by global standards. •
