Downtown’s Travis Park Plaza building will become home to one of the city’s largest co-working spaces early next month, when Common Desk opens its first San Antonio location.
The third floor of the building, which sits west of Travis Park, got a more than $1 million makeover of its almost 20,000 square feet and will offer co-working space, 72 private offices, conference rooms, “Zoom rooms” chat booths and a podcast studio. Amenities include a full kitchen, an espresso bar and free bottomless drip coffee, ground daily.
The opening comes as office vacancy rates continue to climb, in San Antonio and nationwide, and as hybrid working arrangements appear to be here to stay. Adding co-working space at Travis Park Plaza was a way to respond to current market conditions, said Joshua Bar-Yadin, a founder and partner with Entrada Partners, which owns the building.
“Co-working has been around for a long time,” he said. “But after COVID hit, flexibility on leases became a big demand driver. This is what a lot of companies and individuals want, so having it at our office building is really about meeting the market.”
The space was originally set to open last fall, but the renovations took longer — and cost more — than originally planned, said Bar-Yadin. He said once Common Desk is open, the building will be at about 85% occupancy.
Co-working evolves
Dallas-based Common Desk, founded in 2012, was bought by WeWork in 2022. It employs a model different from that of its parent company, which took out long-term leases on its spaces and was responsible for renovating, furnishing and keeping them full. WeWork, which filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2023 after several turbulent years, is now trying to renegotiate many of those leases nationwide.
WeWork in 2019 was working on plans to open a 75,000-square-foot San Antonio outpost in the 300 block of Houston Street, but that effort collapsed amid the company’s larger troubles.
The Common Desk model, which news reports say made it an attractive acquisition for WeWork, uses management agreements with landlords rather than typical long-term leases. That means the building owner takes on the cost of the upgrades, Common Desk is responsible for generating revenue through memberships and the revenue is shared by both parties.
Bar-Yadin called it “a really good benefit for the operating company because they go in without a lease and without having a huge liability or commitment to pay rent.” A management agreement can be riskier for landlords because it doesn’t offer a stable, predictable payment, but it is a way to more reliably fill space with the flexible options today’s customers want.
Entrada reviewed several co-working operators before choosing to work with Common Desk, he said. “They’re good quality operators and they fit in with our building, our culture and theme, and it just was the right fit.”
Common Desk chose San Antonio, said Kristen Poulton, the company’s head of marketing, after a company visit a couple of years ago found a lot of entrepreneurial activity with a strong collaborative culture. “It felt very community-driven,” she said, “and that’s exactly the kind of environment Common Desk thrives in.”
Filling vacant space
Common Desk’s new space tips the available amount of co-working office space in San Antonio to just over 400,000 square feet across 48 locations, said Daniel Khalil, a senior marketing analyst with CoStar, which crunches commercial real estate data nationwide.
He cautioned that the total is an estimate, as the term co-working “is often used in a nebulous way by many in the industry,” he said. “At its broadest meaning, it can include virtual offices, maker spaces and even vacant office spaces that building owners are willing to offer as co-working space in lieu of a regular office tenant.”
Khalil said there appears to be “a lot” of the latter, “possibly as a result of the newfound environment for office space.”
Office space vacancy rates vary depending on which organization is doing the reporting and what they include, but all agree that vacancies hit an all-time high in 2023. Moody’s Analytics recently reported rates of 19.6% nationally; CoStar put the figure closer to 13.5%.
CoStar pegged the vacancy rate for San Antonio at 12.6% at the end of 2023, Khalil said, a percentage that climbed throughout the year. He said CoStar’s numbers are lower than other estimates because the company looks at the widest possible pool of office space, including small offices and owner-occupied spaces.
Common Desk’s downtown location joins what is likely the largest single co-working space in San Antonio. Just three blocks away, Geekdom operates 53,000 square feet in the Rand Building. More than just co-working, however, its value proposition is in its programming, which is designed to support and grow entrepreneurs.
“We do have co-working space and some people use it that way, to come and plop down their computer and throw on their headphones and work,” said CEO Charles Woodin. “But the vast majority of the people in this space are either building a startup or are an entrepreneur at some various stage of growth.”
Woodin said Common Desk is complementary to Geekdom rather than competition, and he welcomes the expansion of co-working space downtown.
Hungry to socialize
Activity in the downtown core seems to be on the upswing. The developers who are turning the historic Tower Life building into a 244-unit residential building expect work to begin in June. McCombs Enterprises, an investor in that project, also recently bought out the ground lease for a former Holiday Inn downtown that now serves as a homeless shelter, giving it control of the property.
A new electric trolley service now offers free short-hop rides around downtown, and last week, City Council considered code changes that would allow flashing billboards in “entertainment districts” that could include parts of downtown.
Trish DeBerry, CEO of Centro San Antonio, a public-private organization that supports downtown business development, predicted Common Desk would be a popular option for workers looking for flexibility, amenities and social opportunities.
“I think people are hungry for the opportunity to connect and socialize, to network and collaborate,” she said.
Common Desk, which describes its vibe as “Southern hospitality,” likes to add local flourishes and a custom logo to each of its spaces. In San Antonio, the logo is quatrefoil-shaped, with an orange and blue color scheme. The space itself is accented in relaxing deep blues and greens, with plush furniture and sit/stand desks.
At Travis Park Plaza, Jesse Cazares and Amanda Lopez — both born and bred San Antonians — will be onsite at Common Desk daily, grinding coffee beans, organizing events and looking for ways “to make your workday better,” Cazares said. That includes perks like free Topo Chico, tea, beer and wine for members, along with the latest technology in each soundproof conference room and office.
Memberships offer an array of flexible work options, from inexpensive student memberships to drop-in day passes and a corner office with views of the park and historic St. Anthony Hotel and Travis Park Church. Spaces can also be rented outside of memberships.
This article has been updated to reflect that Common Desk’s facility originally was slated to open in fall 2023.
