A FLEXIBLE working space in Glasgow is accelerating plans to expand, and take its concept to other cities, after huge demand in its first nine months of operations.
Clockwise, based in the well-known Savoy Tower in the north of the city centre, opened in May 2017, offering start-up businesses shared and flexible working space.
Lesley-Anne Jeffrey, property manager, said Clockwise had reached more than two-thirds of capacity after renovating four floors of the 11 storey building. A further two floors are set to refurbished this month.
Depending on the success of phase 2, Ms Jeffrey said phase 3 would progress and add another three floors to the operation, at which point the company would begin to look at opportunities in other cities.
READ MORE: Major digital skills boost for Glasgow as CodeClan unveils expansion plan
“Glasgow is the first Clockwise building but there are plans to expand to other cities, in Scotland and England,” she said.
The building is owned by Castleforge Partners, which has also recently refurbished The Garment Factory and 58 Waterloo Street in Glasgow.
The building was bought in 2015 and the owners looked at various different options for transforming it into modern flexible work spaces.
“There has been a rise of shared flexible work spaces so Glasgow was ready,” she says. “We worked out what we wanted to deliver, looked at what was happening in other cities and went from there,” she said.
The second floor acts as the hub for the space, with a club lounge available for meetings, and a terrace space provides an outdoor space, which feels open and yet is dominated on one side by the huge modernist building.
Membership starts at £50 a month for a hot desk and access to facilities such as a mail box and phone line.
“It can be a struggle for start-up businesses to find somewhere in central Glasgow to base themselves,” said Ms Jeffrey. “We have a real mixed bag of tenants, from creative copywriters and architects to fintech and asset management businesses.”
There are currently 200 people working in the building, from sole traders to larger businesses with more than 20 employees. Among them are AHR Architecture, Change Recruitment, and surveying group Terapro.
The most high-profile addition yet is CodeClan, the digital skills academy which moved into the building from council-operated The Tontine last month.
When asked what was behind the rise in shared workspace facilities, Ms Jeffrey said: “It’s all about flexibility. People want to work in a way that is specific for them. Flexible monthly contracts are what people want, the nine to five structure doesn’t suit every business.”
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