Coworking Provider CommonGrounds To Open First Location, East Coast Office In Center City

Market Street is growing more crowded for coworking, with another new-to-market operator laying down roots in Center City.

San Diego-based CommonGrounds announced that it has signed a long-term, 62K SF lease at 1700 Market St., where it will occupy two floors beginning in early 2020. In addition to its flexible workspace product, CommonGrounds will also run its regional headquarters out of the location.

Shorenstein Properties has owned 1700 Market St. since it purchased the 1960s-era building from Nightingale Properties in 2016. After making a series of capital improvements, the San Francisco-based landlord signed a raft of new tenants. CBRE represented Shorenstein in the deal with CommonGrounds.

Behind a $100M Series A funding round, CommonGrounds has been expanding into several new markets this year, with six new leases signed since January. CommonGrounds has locations active in seven markets from California to Minnesota, and by early 2020 plans to add Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Seattle to the mix.

At the time of CommonGrounds' announcement, 62K SF would be the biggest coworking space in Philadelphia, but its competition is in close quarters. From west of Independence Square to the Schuylkill River, a multitude of coworking companies operate either on Market Street or within one block of it:

• WeWork manages 40K SF at 1601 Market St. and 56K SF at 1900 Market St., and has signed a lease for 51K SF at 1100 Ludlow in the East Market development, Technical.ly reports. (Disclosure: Bisnow has an office in the 1900 Market location.)
• MakeOffices runs the largest active coworking space in the city with 57K SF at 1635 Market St., and runs 25K SF at 2001 Market St.
• The Yard's Philly location is across the street from The Ludlow at 21 South 11th St.
• IWG subsidiary Spaces runs a 38K SF space in the Hale Building at 100 South Juniper St., while sister company Regus operates in Centre Square at 1500 Market St. and One Liberty Place at 1630 Market St.
• South Florida-based Pipeline has run a space at 30 South 15th St. since 2014.
• Industrious has signed a deal to manage 55K SF at Two Liberty Place, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
• At 2400 Market St., Fitler Club runs a coworking space for its members along with more traditional private club benefits like fitness, dining and social gatherings.

CommonGrounds brands itself as a provider of "enterprise-level" office space, much like nearly all of the operators that already sit along Market Street. Companies with more of an entrepreneurial focus like 1776 and Kismet are spread farther out in the city, while life science incubators abound in University City.