AVILLA — Working from home is becoming the future of work in the United States and with the rising number of remote workers comes the need for them to have a space to do their jobs.
Towns and cities across the country are beginning to open up co-working spaces to allow remote workers and entrepreneurs to be in a quieter environment where they are able to interact with others and have resources like rooms for video conferences available to use.
The idea of building a co-working space and incubator was the conversation at Thursday’s Avilla Redevelopment Commission meeting.
Town Manager Tena Woenker and Noble County Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Gary Gatman spoke to committee members about the idea of purchasing property from local land surveyor Josh Lash and turning his building into an incubator and co-working space.
Lash was in attendance at the meeting where he told members he’s looking to sell his building or demolish it and put up a new structure if it can’t be sold.
Woenker and Gatman said the town should consider purchasing Lash’s building and turn it into a space where remote workers and entrepreneurs can work at and share business ideas.
Lash’s building is very old and in dire need of repair. Woenker said the RDC could purchase the property using tax increment financing (TIF) funds and cover the costs of renovating the building.
“We could turn this place into an incubator for startup businesses and the town can make revenue from it,” she said at the meeting.
She and Gatman mentioned how they are numerous co-working spaces and incubators in Fort Wayne that have been successful and they hope to do the same in Avilla and across Noble County.
She mentioned how she has met a number of people who are remote workers in Avilla, and having a space like this would allow them to have a space to work outside of their homes.
Gatman said they would install Wi-Fi in the space and have Zoom rooms, where people can do video conferences for their jobs.
He hopes to attract new entrepreneurs to the county since they have struggled to get people to start new companies in the region.
The space would be affordable for people. She said leasing a building would typically cost around $5,000 per month to rent while their workspace and incubator would only charge around $500 for the year as the membership fee.
“People would have additional resources available to them like working with the small business development center to get mentorship or speaking with our town attorney about how to start an LLC,” she said.
She added that some of the co-working spaces in Fort Wayne are so popular that they have waiting lists for people to join them.
The town would first try to get someone to either buy the building or get a business to move into it. If that doesn’t happen, they would go forward with its plans to create the workspace.
“Another idea we could do is put the workspace in the upstairs area while having a business downstairs,” she said. “The main focus right now is getting the building stabilized and functional.”
Committee members expressed support for the idea and will be considered in the future.