Common Desk — one of the largest coworking spaces in the city operating under the WeWork umbrella — will establish its first site in downtown San Antonio, more precisely, in the Travis Park Plaza building.
The roughly 20,000-square-foot third floor of the building, which is located west of Travis Park, went through a $1 million renovation and will now house a podcast studio, 72 private offices, conference rooms, “Zoom rooms,” chat booths and open coworking space. A complete kitchen, an espresso bar and free endless drip coffee ground daily are among the extra amenities available at this space.
The opening coincides with rising office vacancy rates both nationally and in San Antonio, as well as the seeming permanence of hybrid work arrangements. Travis Park Plaza added the coworking space in response to today’s market conditions, in which business professionals of all paths of life are contributing to the rising demand for flexible work solutions. That’s according to Bar-Yadin, one of the founders of Entrada Partners, which owns the building.
Bar-Yadin also added that “Coworking has been around for a long time, 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.”
WeWork acquired Dallas-based Common Desk in 2022 after it was established in 2012. It operates under a different business model than its parent company, which leased its premises for extended periods of time and was in charge of maintaining, furnishing and updating them. WeWork is currently attempting to renegotiate many of those leases across the country. The company filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2023 following several difficult years.
Instead of standard, long-term leases, the Common Desk model uses management agreements with landlords, which news sources claim made it an attractive acquisition for WeWork. This implies that Common Desk generates income from memberships and both partners split the earnings, but the building owner bears the expense of the modifications.
Bar-Yadin described this model as “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.” Plus, because a management agreement doesn’t provide a steady, predictable payment, it can be riskier for landlords. However, it also offers a method to more consistently fill space with the flexible possibilities that modern tenants demand.
