TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa is one of the nation’s best cities when it comes to accommodating hybrid workers. That is according to a new survey from Rent.com.
According to the survey, workspaces push the Tampa Bay area toward the top.
“This is a very flexible environment and a flexible workspace, so this works for me,” said Rebecca Larrea from MI Mortgage.
Larrea feels right at home at CoWork Tampa. It's a space that brings together entrepreneurs, remote workers, and freelancers.
“Covid happened, you're homeschooling your kids, everyone is working from home, that shifted everything, and a lot of these co-working spaces started opening up and becoming available, and the trend started there,” explained Larrea.
She told ABC Action News she's not someone who thrives working from home. This is a sentiment shared by many, including Mike Hardy.
“I don’t know if I’m a work-from-home person,” said Hardy, a Tampa-based sales executive for a company headquartered in Lakeland.
Hardy and his colleagues used to rent an entire office. But the arrangement at CoWork Tampa saved his company big time. Hardy said it was 75-80% less.
“They found us co-workspace, didn’t know what it was, but we came here, been two and a half years, I love it. It has the homey feeling with the office environment," said Hardy.
At CoWork Tampa, clients don’t pay for parking, electricity, Wi-Fi, or printing; it's all included in a monthly fee that could be as low as $99 if you just need a simple workspace a few days a week.
There's also a communal break room with snacks and a pool table.
“It’s really good to mitigate overhead costs. As a small business owner, what are you concerned with, your bottom line, right,” said Larrea.
Also, unlike renting an office building at CoWork Tampa, there’s no multiyear commitment to a lease. It can be month to month.
Larrea said it's been a very easy adjustment.
“I mean I went from offices full of furniture, a bullpen full of cubicles, inside employees to a desk and I absolutely love it I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” said Larrea.
While there are positives to a coworking space, there are a couple of downsides. You're sharing the space with several other companies, and while it's a lower-cost option than renting an entire office space, it's still cheaper to work at home.
