Eighteen years ago, Kathleen English created a partnership to purchase a Baptist tabernacle on the corner of Decatur Street and Washington Avenue as an investment property.
Her company, English + Associates Architects, has occupied more than half of the building since and leased space to others. When she began to lose tenants — due to retirement and relocations — she decided to renovate the church and rebrand as Workplace 1919.
“We realized that we couldn’t just keep looking for other occupants as just sublease," she said. "Because coworking [was] invented and we were less visible."
Before she started remodeling, she visited other coworking spaces to determine what people were looking for and talked with her current tenants to determine what they wanted to keep. She said it was important to remember what they already did well.
English said she learned that tenants preferred private offices with semi-privacy, but also wanted access to activities and amenities such as coffee, a copier and a conference room.
With a tight renovation budget, she started with the area she thought needed the most attention, the lowest level. She added eight private offices and a flex meeting area for informal meetings and boosted the WiFi capacity.
The next phases of the renovation will include the main level. She plans to remove the traditional office set-up with side-by-side cubicles and add more glass-enclosed offices. She will also refresh the conference rooms and make other minor cosmetic changes to the facility.
Monthly prices at Workplace 1919 are $150 per month for a membership, $250 for a dedicated desk, $500 and up for a large workstation, $950 for a private office for one person and $1,200 for a private office for two people. The facility’s current occupancy sits around 50%.
"We had some catching up to do," English said. "Not in terms of how we operated but how we presented ourselves to the real estate community."
the Original Church |
Even as the property undergoes some changes, English wants to preserve the history of the church. When guests enter the main lobby, a piece of the church's past welcomes them: an original pew.
A local historian told English the church was built in 1922, but there is no written evidence. Church attendance began to drop in the 1960s and the Baptists sold the property to the Metropolitan Community Church of the Resurrection in 1975. MCCR occupied the building until 2000 when they relocated to the old Mormon tabernacle on West Eleventh Street and North Shepard Drive.
"It was very important to both preserve the character and history of the space and make it functional as a business once the religious use moved on," she said.
Check out six photos that show how Workplace 1919 is blending modern work with the history of a church.
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