Enclave Coworking, a venture backed coworking startup, has taken advantage of the rise of suburban coworking and now operates fourteen locations in Illinois, with a planned expansion to Washington DC.
Enclave’s rise in popularity can be attributed to the increase in hybrid work post-covid. Once a rarity, working from home has become the norm for America’s white collar professionals, 70% of whom work from home 2+ days per week.
Enclave builds high end, but low cost office and coworking environments in suburban downtowns to cater to those hybrid professionals.
“Enclave provides me with a high value/low cost, office 6 minutes from my house,” said Jason Tuscher, an Enclave office holder. “Not having to travel to downtown Chicago allows me to trade my commute for more time with family and friends.”
Suburban coworking has grown from 10% of the market in 2020 to around 40% today. According to CoWorking Insights, the rise is due to the post covid environment in which the dream of “work from home” met a harsh reality: working alongside kids, pets, and spouses was far from ideal for millions of Americans. For many, working close to - but not at - home is the actual ideal.
“As an entrepreneur, having a coworking space 5 minutes from home lets me check on my newborn daughter, hold an important investor meeting, or create software in a silent bubble, all in the same day,” said Michael Cerna, an Enclave Skokie member. Prior to Enclave, offices in Skokie were drab, unattractive spaces and, according to Cerna, certainly did not include the same sense of community that is present at Enclave.
Enclave is not the only operator in this space. Others include Thrive Coworking out of Atlanta and CoHatch, an Ohio company. Both Thrive and CoHatch cater primarily to corporations looking for suburban office space while Enclave caters more to hybrid workers.
Enclave is one of the few venture backed options in the suburban coworking space. Founded in 2020, it was backed by Venture Capital firms Corazon Capital, New Stack Ventures, and Bling Capital with the promise to help members work close to home and improve work-life balance.